TECHNOIR Read Online Free PDF Page A

and the lights are described as “orbs.” Out of thin air they appear over the lake, and sometimes witnessed near a local nuclear power plant. Apparently, the “Lake Erie Lights” have returned once again, and they have locals talking. Some loudly, some in hushed tones. But some are wondering whether this recent wave of UFO sightings over the lake with the creepy name is the real thing or a hoax.
                If the new lights and their videos are indeed a hoax, it would be a shame for UFOlogy because Lake Erie has a long history of mind-boggling paranormal activity.
                To start, the lake is named after a Native American tribe called the “Erielhonan,” meaning the people with “long tails.” They were also called the “Cat” or “Raccoon” people. What’s more, the region was a hot-bed of abolitionism leading up to the Civil War, a time when the locals on the highlands south of the city told outsiders beware of the lake’s “Wizard Lights.” Some thought they were distressed ships on fire, but daybreak revealed no wreckage, dead bodies or survivors.
                One hundred and fifty years later, on a cold winter night in 1988, a UFO described as large as “the Goodyear Blimp” appeared on the lake. Stunned witnesses said at first the craft seemed to be struggling to get off a sheet of ice that was not far from the lake's shore. As a crowd of witnesses grows, the craft sets loose a squadron of smaller, triangular-shaped craft that buzz the witnesses. A local Coast Guard team sees the entire episode unfold right in front of their eyes, but within hours the team is apparently strong-armed into silence by military officers from Ohio’s Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. What’s more, the civilians who do see the oblong craft will soon have their homes buzzed by an alleged unmarked black helicopter. It’s one of the best-documented UFO cases in the history of the US. Twenty years later, in an interview for this book, one of the Coast Guard personnel there that night is still not sure what he saw – or is he?
                Since 2004, CUP, the
Cleveland Ufology Project ,
has documented 40 sightings from northeast Ohio and from the miles of Lake Erie beaches. The best and latest occurred at the beginning of 2010. A witness saw a triangular-shaped craft with amber lights (go figure) vanish over the lake. Then for several nights in a row a mysterious light began appearing nightly over Lake Erie near Cleveland – showing up at around 7:30 pm and zipping around in the darkness for about two hours before disappearing. CUP was founded in 1952 and claims to be one of the oldest UFO-spotting groups in the country, if not the planet.
                “It’s a hot spot,” declares local Ufologist Aaron Clark about the beaches of Lake Erie near Cleveland. “Some believe there’s a UFO base on the bottom of the lake.” One thing is certain, the Lake Erie UFO hype is real: Literally millions have viewed Internet videos of Lake Erie UFOs. The Cleveland Office of Homeland Security has, to an unknown degree, investigated the sightings. In 2007, an “orb” was videotaped over the Key Bank Tower during a peace rally, and the incident made it on the CBS nightly news.
                “If you take all of the people in Ohio who are interested in this subject, I bet half of them are from that part of the state,” says Ohio-based William E. Jones, state director for Ohio MUFON, or Mutual UFO Network. “A lot of folks up there have seen things over the years. More people are interested up there. I don’t know why.”
                Historically, the total number of eyewitness accounts is unknown because there are so many of them. Stories of “strange ships” on the lake have been circulating since at least the 1800s. Ask anyone who lives near the lake, and either they’ve seen something odd, or know of someone who has. For some, what they saw