Charles E. Hickson ( left) and Calvin Parker, who stated in 1973 that they was kidnapped by a UFO.
News 25's Gina Tomlinson sat down with the former deputy who was working the night of October 11th, 1973 when two men claimed they were picked up by a UFO.
It's been 44 years and people are still wondering: is the Pascagoula alien abduction all a hoax or were two fishermen really picked up by a UFO in Jackson County on October 11th, 1973? Retired Jackson County Deputy Glenn Ryder was working the night the call came into dispatch. "That boy was so upset, he was crying. He was scared to death and literally begging Charles not to talk to us."
After 42-year-old Charles Hickson and 19-year-old Calvin Parker frantically told deputies they were just abducted by aliens, the two men were brought in for questioning in a room secretly rigged with a tape recorder. Ryder and other authorities left the two men in the room alone. "That boy was still crying, saying 'don't talk to them Charles. Those people are going to come back and get us. I'm scared. I'm scared.' And I when I played it, I knew something was wrong."
According to their story, the aliens first appeared above the Pascagoula River while the two men were fishing off a pier in the area. "He said, 'I felt something funny and I heard this sound and I looked behind me and there was a flying saucier, and one of them picked me up and took us into the ship.' And he said 'I was suspended. I was floating.'"
Ryder says Hickson claimed three aliens examined him while he was in the space craft with what he described as some kind of eye object. "He said 'I tried to move. I couldn't run. I was petrified.'"
Ryder says the two men passed lie detectors about the incident. Deputies searched the area for evidence that a spaceship was there and found nothing. "I know something happened. I don't know what. They had some kind of experience or that boy wouldn't have cried. There's no way anyone could act like he was and not be truthful," said Ryder.
Comment: Another documentary on the event: