Fatal Close Encounters

Hosted byGeorge Knapp

Fatal Close Encounters

About the show

George Knapp was joined by ufologist Nick Redfern, who discussed a wide range of UFO cases rife with unsettling examples of suspicious deaths - accounts of accidents that might not have been accidents, researchers and witnesses who have vanished, conveniently timed heart attacks, as well as out-of-the-blue suicides that bear the distinct hallmarks of murder. He observed that these mysterious deaths seem to happen on "limited occasions" when someone "knows too much" about the phenomenon and their knowledge is deemed a threat to maintaining UFO secrecy. To that end, he stressed that these murders are likely not the work of the government, per se, but rather a multinational "shadow group" that usurped control of UFO information long ago.

Over the course of his appearance, Redfern detailed numerous instances of uncanny deaths befalling UFO researchers and witnesses that got too close to the truth. One particularly chilling case was of a woman named Miriam Bush, who claimed to have seen alien bodies while working under the chief medical officer at the Roswell Air Force Base at the time of the infamous UFO incident of July 1947. Although she confided this information to her family soon after the incident, it wasn't until the late 1980's that her story became known to the UFO research community. Eerily, despite her name being kept secret from the public, Bush was found dead in a hotel room within weeks of her remarkable Roswell insights being alluded to by a UFO researcher during an interview.

Redfern also reflected on the strange demise of James Forrestal, who served as the first US Secretary of Defense in 1947. According to UFO lore, Forrestal was purportedly briefed on the phenomenon upon his appointment and subsequently suffered a psychological collapse due to the nature of what was revealed as well as his duty to keep it a secret. In 1949, Redfern said, Forrestal was committed to a hospital due to a mental breakdown. Although he seemed to make a full recovery and was poised to return home, Forrestal allegedly attempted to commit suicide and fell to his death from a hospital window despite being only hours away from his scheduled release.

UFO Musings

In the first hour, reporter and media personality Lee Speigel talked about UFO coverage in the media, recalled his 1978 UN presentation on the phenomenon, and provided an update on the latest strange stories he has reported on over the last few months. He vehemently dismissed the concept that government forces control how UFO stories are covered in the media and noted that he has received no such interference at the Huffington Post. On the contrary, he theorized that insubstantial reporting on UFO cases may likely be due to the fact that these events rarely develop into larger stories and, thus, are deemed inconsequential by the media. Although Speigel expressed dismay that the 'visitors' continue to refuse to reveal themselves, he conceded that the immature behavior of the human species may be the true cause for our lack of meaningful contact with these entities.

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