Here's a little tale I recall from a collection of magazines that I've kept from the eighties. 'The Unexplained' offered
many different topics regarding the paranormal and more-than-unusual articles of Ufos and cryptid creatures.
The thing is, when you're growing up and discovering that in far-off lands, strange craft and even stranger monsters
are being wrestled from secret agencies and dragged into the public light, reading about it in a quiet little English
town can set a person wondering.
Maybe such dramatic activity could be played out here, a place where the mundane is normal and getting up for work
every morning is just part of life? The magazines spoke of sleepy mid-west towns invaded by downed alien craft and
peaceful Main Streets where -when the sun goes down, monsters from nightmares shamble forth from the shadows.
So why not in a rain-swept British town like Swindon in Wiltshire?
Ignoring the name derived from the Anglo-Saxon words meaning 'Pig Hill', Swindon held a few young men who decided
to form a group interested in the flying objects that seemed so prevalent in the United States. Surely the space travellers
would -from time-to-time, visit the small island on the other side of the Atlantic?
Certainly such galaxy-roaming explorers wouldn't be able to resist checking out fish and chips, warm beer and the BBC?
Unidentified Flying Objects, the mystery that global Governments held close to their chests, that was what the Swindon
Centre for UFO Research and Investigation (Scufori) was set-up to deal with.
At the very least, it sounds intriguing.
This article always brings a smile to my face when I read it. The drama, the edge-of-the-seat angst involving secretive
officials with dark thoughts on their mind. All the showmanship of American Ufology in an English town known for having
the UK's first lending library and where England's 'Blonde Bombshell' Diana Dors grew up.
Thanks to Martin Shipp for the article and I'll reproduce it appropriately verbatim.
......................................
'Do Not Meddle Or Else'
MEN IN BLACK' had their hey-day in the 1950s and 1960s. They were mysterious visitors, clad in black and of a darkish
complexion, who were said to have visited many prominent ufologists and made vague threats against them.
They were said to have some successes: some ufologists were reputed to have been silenced.
In those days most ufologists believed UFOS to be 'flying saucers', spacecraft piloted by extra-terrestrials.
Visits by men in black (MIBS) and threatening telephone calls and letters ere due either to the aliens or to government
agents trying to stifle the investigators' research.
None of this was proved, but it fitted in neatly with the spacecraft theory.
The ufologist today is on the whole a cooler and more objective investigator. He is open to a wider range of possibilities as
the source of the UFOS; alien ships and MIBS are out of favour and largely forgotten. So when a case reminiscent of of MIBS
was thrust onto a serious UFO group in 1980, the past seemed to be returning.
The group in question was the Swindon Centre for UFO Research and Investigation (SCUFORI), in [southern] western England.
It's members are recruited by invitation only -there are only six.
![[Image: attachment.php?aid=6057]](http://rogue-nation3.com/attachment.php?aid=6057)
SCUFORI members. (front row left-to-right) Martin Shipp, Terry Amey, Martin Moffatt.
(Back row left-to-right) Bob McGregor, Jan Wojtowicz and Charles Affleck.
Mysterious messages disrupted SCUFORI's research for four months. During this period over thirty messages, sent by post
and over the telephone, were received. They threatened the investigators' welfare if they did not stop their investigations.
The first of them came on Monday, 18th August 1980. On that day, SCUFORI member Charles Affleck found on his doorstep
a small, shrivelled-up plastic bag, which appeared to have been damaged by heat.
Inside he found a piece of paper addressed to SCUFORI.
The message simply said:
CEASE UFO STUDY DO NOT MEDDLE OR ELSE
The message ws followed by a jumble of squiggles resembling Arabic script.
Affleck was astonished and immediately called for an emergency meeting of the group. That evening, the message was
discussed and group members jokingly blamed each other for it. They regarded the whole episode as something of a joke.
As little could be done, the matter was dropped.
To everyone's surprise, a second message was received two days later, this time through the post.
It read:
BEWARE WE ARE WATCHING YOU ALL DO NOT INTERFERE WE WILL MEET
![[Image: attachment.php?aid=6059]](http://rogue-nation3.com/attachment.php?aid=6059)
Examples of the 'MIB' letters.
The group were still of the opinion that this was all some kind of joke and that the joker would soon reveal himself.
The following week, three telephone calls were received by two members in their respective homes. The 'messages' consisted
of three bleeps followed by a jumble of weird electronic noises and finally three further bleeps; they lasted from ten to twenty
seconds. A third letter arrived on 3rd September and it read:
IT SEEMS THAT YOU INTEND TO CONTINUE TO INTERFERE WE MUST MEET AT DESIGNATED PLACE
TWO REPRESENTATIVES TO BE CHOSEN WEAR PROTECTION TAPE REPLY PLACE TAPE EXACT REFERENCE
172x816
The location was visited the next day: it turned out to be a field just outside of Swindon. The group decided not to record a
message on tape, but to leave a written one: it wished to keep some control of the situation by declining to obey the instructions
exactly. In the meantime, Charles Affleck had set up a cassette recorder next to his telephone, so that when the next telephone
call came -this time at midnight -it would be recorded. The message consisted of the same weird noises that had been heard
before.
The next day, Affleck and the present author [Shipp] listened to the recording over and over again, trying to make sense of it.
At first it sounded like electronic gibberish. Then, to their surprise, they heard what sounded like words.
Listening very carefully, trying to ignore the other noises, they could pick out further words.
The voice was eerie -almost frightening. It sounded non-human, mechanical. Eventually they made out the following message:
YOU ARE PRIMITIVE WE ARE WATCHING YOU... WE WILL JUDGE WHAT WE WANT YOU ARE TOO CLOSE
Naturally, the investigators were taken aback by this. Sensing the issue might get out of hand, they approached the local
police and told them what was happening. The police were not very interested and did no more than record the complaint.
The next message worried SCUFORI further.
It said:
'DO NOT GO TO THE AUTHORITIES AGAIN OR ELSE.'
How the sender knew the police had been contacted was a mystery.
However, as the police were not going to help, the investigators decided to solve the matter themselves. They hoped they would
get some answer to the letter they had left that might lead to something. The cassette case had disappeared from the location,
despite the group's efforts to watch it whenever possible.
The SCUFORI investigators like to think of themselves as very level-headed people, but these messages were beginning to scare
them since they had no idea who could be behind them. The group's normal activities virtually came to a standstill.
Several days after the cassette case was taken from the field, a letter was received by Charles Affleck -again through the post.
It was the paper that had been left in the cassette case, bearing SCUFORI's message, along with the curt reply:
'WE WILL CONTACT YOU.'
Soon another letter arrived. Its tone was far stronger Here is an extract:
YOU THINK WE ARE CRANKS WE WILL CHANGE YOUR MINDS THINGS WILL HAPPEN... THIS IS A WARNING
WE ARE HERE FOR A PURPOSE YOU ARE ASKING QUESTIONS ABOUT THINGS YOU KNOW NOTHING OF
YOU WILL CEASE UFO STUDY WE HAVE STOPPED OTHERS WE WILL STOP YOU
Then to the complete amazement of the group, the message ended by listing the members' surnames.
It now seemed that one of the group was leaking information. However, this idea was dismissed on the grounds that all of the
members knew each other so well.
On 15th September, three further telephone calls were reported by Charles Affleck and SCUFORI members Jan Wojtowicz and
Raymond Smithers. Affleck's call was made by the same horrible voice, but this time it seemed much angrier, telling SCUFORI
to stop its investigations. Jan Wojtowicz's call consisted simply of weird electronic noises.
The story Raymond Smithers had to tell, though, was more interesting. He had been able to to make out a map reference, which
turned out to be a small track, one mile (1.6 kilometres) east of Avebury. The spot was visited by members of SCUFORI; on the
ground they left the cassette case that had been left at the first location.
It contained a blank piece of paper, which after various experiments proved to carry a message, written in ink visible only under
ultra-violet light.
The message said that 'they' would be willing to co-operate with SCUFORI and would send details of a meeting place.
Two days later a map reference was given in a telephone call, and a week after that a letter arrived with a message consisting of
one word: 'HALLOWEEN'. There were also other telephone calls consisting of apparently meaningless messages and weird
noises.
On Hallowe'en (Saturday night, 31st October), several SCUFORI members visited the location, West Woods, which is a small,
isolated wood. They stayed there for some time and had one harrowing experience when they saw a white shape cross their
path and disappear. But nothing further happened.
![[Image: attachment.php?aid=6058]](http://rogue-nation3.com/attachment.php?aid=6058)
SCUFORI researchers maintaining surveillance on one of the locations of the 'alien' correspondent.
(Right) Charles Affleck setting up the device for the trap.
The group re-examined the messages, the times the dates of their arrival, and so on, in the hope that this might produce
some clues. It was obvious that many of the group's activities were mentioned in the messages, and it became an inescapable
possibility that one of the group might be in league with the mystery caller.
An Excess Of Encounters.
Smithers was the only group member who had not been present when the telephone calls were received. He claimed to have
received calls himself, but no one else had been present on these occasions. He was also interested in electronic gadgets.
It seemed incredible that he would be responsible, for he appeared to be as mystified as anyone else by the messages, but
he was now felt to be worth watching.
Smithers then made a series of bizarre claims that strengthened the other group members' suspicions. First he presented
a picture of a 'crashed UFO'. It showed a spherical object that, he claimed, he had come across while walking his dog close
to his home. He had just had time to rush indoors, grab his Polaroid camera and use the last picture to snap the object before
it rose into the air.
Later investigation showed that the object was actually part of a sewage system.
![[Image: attachment.php?aid=6060]](http://rogue-nation3.com/attachment.php?aid=6060)
The spacecraft that cleverly disguised itself as part of a sewage system and the damaged cassette tape and casing.
On another occasion Smithers said that he had been stopped by a MIB on his way to a SCUFORI meeting. The man had touched
his arm and caused the cassette case he was carrying to melt; later a rash appeared on that arm.
SCUFORI now set about trapping the culprit. Affleck built an ingenious device that would photograph the hoaxer. A cassette case
had been left at a location, placed on a micro-switch connected to a camera and flash unit. The camera, an Olympus OMI , was
sealed inside a steel box, the front of which a shutter device was fitted.
The box was fixed on a pole, at the other end was a block of cement. The pole was buried in the ground, with the camera and flash
unit pointing to the spot at which the cassette case was placed. When the case was picked up, the micro-switch would be operated,
and the camera flash would go off, thus taking a picture of whoever picked up the case.
The the shutter would close in such a way that it would be impossible to re-open.
The trap was set up in yet another remote location. The investigators made sure that Smithers knew where they had left the cassette
case. The device was tested several times, and the ufologists left. It did work, and the resulting photograph showed Smithers picking
up the cassette case.
When SCUFORI members revisited the location, they found that the steel box, the pole and the attached block of concrete had been
wrenched from the ground and dragged a short distance. The flash had instantly given away the presence of the camera, of course
and in his fury, Smithers had found strength enough to perform the remarkable feat of uprooting the whole device.
But he could not batter his way into the box or drag the whole structure away.
Smithers was required to resign from SCUFORI .
He claimed that he had perpetrated the hoax because he himself was being harrassed: unless he caused the group to fold, harm
would come to him. However, he produced no proof of this claim.
What was particularly surprising about Smithers's guilt is that he was a special constable in the police force and training to be a
state registered nurse. In most people's eyes these distinctions would presumably have proved him a very responsible citizen!
(Incidentally, the name 'Raymond Smithers' is a pseudonym.)
SCUFORI now as a unique record of an MIB-type case: unusually, this one was solved. The affair proves that with determination
and initiative one can get answers to a mystifying phenomenon.
The End.
......................................
God loves a tryer...! And I love the simplistic narrative, the working-class perception and the limited-funded equipment used.
In most accounts, intricate technologies are discussed by reliable and noted witnesses, thought-provoking rhetoric is used to arouse
feelings in the reader that powerful forces are afoot to maintain society's ignorance and the threat to life is always waiting in the shadows.
Here, we have a guy goofing about with constrained finances and getting caught by a chunk of concrete. But most of all, get a load of that
hand-written font in the letters! Surely that 'space-age' text would convince the most grounded researcher that aliens were here and enjoyed
using the Royal Mail!!
But it isn't movie material!
many different topics regarding the paranormal and more-than-unusual articles of Ufos and cryptid creatures.
The thing is, when you're growing up and discovering that in far-off lands, strange craft and even stranger monsters
are being wrestled from secret agencies and dragged into the public light, reading about it in a quiet little English
town can set a person wondering.
Maybe such dramatic activity could be played out here, a place where the mundane is normal and getting up for work
every morning is just part of life? The magazines spoke of sleepy mid-west towns invaded by downed alien craft and
peaceful Main Streets where -when the sun goes down, monsters from nightmares shamble forth from the shadows.
So why not in a rain-swept British town like Swindon in Wiltshire?
Ignoring the name derived from the Anglo-Saxon words meaning 'Pig Hill', Swindon held a few young men who decided
to form a group interested in the flying objects that seemed so prevalent in the United States. Surely the space travellers
would -from time-to-time, visit the small island on the other side of the Atlantic?
Certainly such galaxy-roaming explorers wouldn't be able to resist checking out fish and chips, warm beer and the BBC?
Unidentified Flying Objects, the mystery that global Governments held close to their chests, that was what the Swindon
Centre for UFO Research and Investigation (Scufori) was set-up to deal with.
At the very least, it sounds intriguing.
This article always brings a smile to my face when I read it. The drama, the edge-of-the-seat angst involving secretive
officials with dark thoughts on their mind. All the showmanship of American Ufology in an English town known for having
the UK's first lending library and where England's 'Blonde Bombshell' Diana Dors grew up.
Thanks to Martin Shipp for the article and I'll reproduce it appropriately verbatim.
......................................
'Do Not Meddle Or Else'
MEN IN BLACK' had their hey-day in the 1950s and 1960s. They were mysterious visitors, clad in black and of a darkish
complexion, who were said to have visited many prominent ufologists and made vague threats against them.
They were said to have some successes: some ufologists were reputed to have been silenced.
In those days most ufologists believed UFOS to be 'flying saucers', spacecraft piloted by extra-terrestrials.
Visits by men in black (MIBS) and threatening telephone calls and letters ere due either to the aliens or to government
agents trying to stifle the investigators' research.
None of this was proved, but it fitted in neatly with the spacecraft theory.
The ufologist today is on the whole a cooler and more objective investigator. He is open to a wider range of possibilities as
the source of the UFOS; alien ships and MIBS are out of favour and largely forgotten. So when a case reminiscent of of MIBS
was thrust onto a serious UFO group in 1980, the past seemed to be returning.
The group in question was the Swindon Centre for UFO Research and Investigation (SCUFORI), in [southern] western England.
It's members are recruited by invitation only -there are only six.
SCUFORI members. (front row left-to-right) Martin Shipp, Terry Amey, Martin Moffatt.
(Back row left-to-right) Bob McGregor, Jan Wojtowicz and Charles Affleck.
Mysterious messages disrupted SCUFORI's research for four months. During this period over thirty messages, sent by post
and over the telephone, were received. They threatened the investigators' welfare if they did not stop their investigations.
The first of them came on Monday, 18th August 1980. On that day, SCUFORI member Charles Affleck found on his doorstep
a small, shrivelled-up plastic bag, which appeared to have been damaged by heat.
Inside he found a piece of paper addressed to SCUFORI.
The message simply said:
CEASE UFO STUDY DO NOT MEDDLE OR ELSE
The message ws followed by a jumble of squiggles resembling Arabic script.
Affleck was astonished and immediately called for an emergency meeting of the group. That evening, the message was
discussed and group members jokingly blamed each other for it. They regarded the whole episode as something of a joke.
As little could be done, the matter was dropped.
To everyone's surprise, a second message was received two days later, this time through the post.
It read:
BEWARE WE ARE WATCHING YOU ALL DO NOT INTERFERE WE WILL MEET
Examples of the 'MIB' letters.
The group were still of the opinion that this was all some kind of joke and that the joker would soon reveal himself.
The following week, three telephone calls were received by two members in their respective homes. The 'messages' consisted
of three bleeps followed by a jumble of weird electronic noises and finally three further bleeps; they lasted from ten to twenty
seconds. A third letter arrived on 3rd September and it read:
IT SEEMS THAT YOU INTEND TO CONTINUE TO INTERFERE WE MUST MEET AT DESIGNATED PLACE
TWO REPRESENTATIVES TO BE CHOSEN WEAR PROTECTION TAPE REPLY PLACE TAPE EXACT REFERENCE
172x816
The location was visited the next day: it turned out to be a field just outside of Swindon. The group decided not to record a
message on tape, but to leave a written one: it wished to keep some control of the situation by declining to obey the instructions
exactly. In the meantime, Charles Affleck had set up a cassette recorder next to his telephone, so that when the next telephone
call came -this time at midnight -it would be recorded. The message consisted of the same weird noises that had been heard
before.
The next day, Affleck and the present author [Shipp] listened to the recording over and over again, trying to make sense of it.
At first it sounded like electronic gibberish. Then, to their surprise, they heard what sounded like words.
Listening very carefully, trying to ignore the other noises, they could pick out further words.
The voice was eerie -almost frightening. It sounded non-human, mechanical. Eventually they made out the following message:
YOU ARE PRIMITIVE WE ARE WATCHING YOU... WE WILL JUDGE WHAT WE WANT YOU ARE TOO CLOSE
Naturally, the investigators were taken aback by this. Sensing the issue might get out of hand, they approached the local
police and told them what was happening. The police were not very interested and did no more than record the complaint.
The next message worried SCUFORI further.
It said:
'DO NOT GO TO THE AUTHORITIES AGAIN OR ELSE.'
How the sender knew the police had been contacted was a mystery.
However, as the police were not going to help, the investigators decided to solve the matter themselves. They hoped they would
get some answer to the letter they had left that might lead to something. The cassette case had disappeared from the location,
despite the group's efforts to watch it whenever possible.
The SCUFORI investigators like to think of themselves as very level-headed people, but these messages were beginning to scare
them since they had no idea who could be behind them. The group's normal activities virtually came to a standstill.
Several days after the cassette case was taken from the field, a letter was received by Charles Affleck -again through the post.
It was the paper that had been left in the cassette case, bearing SCUFORI's message, along with the curt reply:
'WE WILL CONTACT YOU.'
Soon another letter arrived. Its tone was far stronger Here is an extract:
YOU THINK WE ARE CRANKS WE WILL CHANGE YOUR MINDS THINGS WILL HAPPEN... THIS IS A WARNING
WE ARE HERE FOR A PURPOSE YOU ARE ASKING QUESTIONS ABOUT THINGS YOU KNOW NOTHING OF
YOU WILL CEASE UFO STUDY WE HAVE STOPPED OTHERS WE WILL STOP YOU
Then to the complete amazement of the group, the message ended by listing the members' surnames.
It now seemed that one of the group was leaking information. However, this idea was dismissed on the grounds that all of the
members knew each other so well.
On 15th September, three further telephone calls were reported by Charles Affleck and SCUFORI members Jan Wojtowicz and
Raymond Smithers. Affleck's call was made by the same horrible voice, but this time it seemed much angrier, telling SCUFORI
to stop its investigations. Jan Wojtowicz's call consisted simply of weird electronic noises.
The story Raymond Smithers had to tell, though, was more interesting. He had been able to to make out a map reference, which
turned out to be a small track, one mile (1.6 kilometres) east of Avebury. The spot was visited by members of SCUFORI; on the
ground they left the cassette case that had been left at the first location.
It contained a blank piece of paper, which after various experiments proved to carry a message, written in ink visible only under
ultra-violet light.
The message said that 'they' would be willing to co-operate with SCUFORI and would send details of a meeting place.
Two days later a map reference was given in a telephone call, and a week after that a letter arrived with a message consisting of
one word: 'HALLOWEEN'. There were also other telephone calls consisting of apparently meaningless messages and weird
noises.
On Hallowe'en (Saturday night, 31st October), several SCUFORI members visited the location, West Woods, which is a small,
isolated wood. They stayed there for some time and had one harrowing experience when they saw a white shape cross their
path and disappear. But nothing further happened.
SCUFORI researchers maintaining surveillance on one of the locations of the 'alien' correspondent.
(Right) Charles Affleck setting up the device for the trap.
The group re-examined the messages, the times the dates of their arrival, and so on, in the hope that this might produce
some clues. It was obvious that many of the group's activities were mentioned in the messages, and it became an inescapable
possibility that one of the group might be in league with the mystery caller.
An Excess Of Encounters.
Smithers was the only group member who had not been present when the telephone calls were received. He claimed to have
received calls himself, but no one else had been present on these occasions. He was also interested in electronic gadgets.
It seemed incredible that he would be responsible, for he appeared to be as mystified as anyone else by the messages, but
he was now felt to be worth watching.
Smithers then made a series of bizarre claims that strengthened the other group members' suspicions. First he presented
a picture of a 'crashed UFO'. It showed a spherical object that, he claimed, he had come across while walking his dog close
to his home. He had just had time to rush indoors, grab his Polaroid camera and use the last picture to snap the object before
it rose into the air.
Later investigation showed that the object was actually part of a sewage system.
The spacecraft that cleverly disguised itself as part of a sewage system and the damaged cassette tape and casing.
On another occasion Smithers said that he had been stopped by a MIB on his way to a SCUFORI meeting. The man had touched
his arm and caused the cassette case he was carrying to melt; later a rash appeared on that arm.
SCUFORI now set about trapping the culprit. Affleck built an ingenious device that would photograph the hoaxer. A cassette case
had been left at a location, placed on a micro-switch connected to a camera and flash unit. The camera, an Olympus OMI , was
sealed inside a steel box, the front of which a shutter device was fitted.
The box was fixed on a pole, at the other end was a block of cement. The pole was buried in the ground, with the camera and flash
unit pointing to the spot at which the cassette case was placed. When the case was picked up, the micro-switch would be operated,
and the camera flash would go off, thus taking a picture of whoever picked up the case.
The the shutter would close in such a way that it would be impossible to re-open.
The trap was set up in yet another remote location. The investigators made sure that Smithers knew where they had left the cassette
case. The device was tested several times, and the ufologists left. It did work, and the resulting photograph showed Smithers picking
up the cassette case.
When SCUFORI members revisited the location, they found that the steel box, the pole and the attached block of concrete had been
wrenched from the ground and dragged a short distance. The flash had instantly given away the presence of the camera, of course
and in his fury, Smithers had found strength enough to perform the remarkable feat of uprooting the whole device.
But he could not batter his way into the box or drag the whole structure away.
Smithers was required to resign from SCUFORI .
He claimed that he had perpetrated the hoax because he himself was being harrassed: unless he caused the group to fold, harm
would come to him. However, he produced no proof of this claim.
What was particularly surprising about Smithers's guilt is that he was a special constable in the police force and training to be a
state registered nurse. In most people's eyes these distinctions would presumably have proved him a very responsible citizen!
(Incidentally, the name 'Raymond Smithers' is a pseudonym.)
SCUFORI now as a unique record of an MIB-type case: unusually, this one was solved. The affair proves that with determination
and initiative one can get answers to a mystifying phenomenon.
The End.
......................................
God loves a tryer...! And I love the simplistic narrative, the working-class perception and the limited-funded equipment used.
In most accounts, intricate technologies are discussed by reliable and noted witnesses, thought-provoking rhetoric is used to arouse
feelings in the reader that powerful forces are afoot to maintain society's ignorance and the threat to life is always waiting in the shadows.
Here, we have a guy goofing about with constrained finances and getting caught by a chunk of concrete. But most of all, get a load of that
hand-written font in the letters! Surely that 'space-age' text would convince the most grounded researcher that aliens were here and enjoyed
using the Royal Mail!!
But it isn't movie material!
Edith Head Gives Good Wardrobe.
![[Image: Clipboard53.jpg]](https://i.ibb.co/mBHGfCt/Clipboard53.jpg)