- [Narrator] "Chronicles" was made possible thanks to a community assets grant provided by the Erie County Gaming Revenue Authority, support by the Department of Education and the generous support of Thomas B. Hagen.

(gentle music) This is W Q L N. (eye glasses creaking) (helmet whirring) (eerie music) (expectant music) (ominous music) (Betty screaming) (eerie music continues) (Betty continues screaming) (baby crying) (radio static buzzes) - [Radio Announcer] If you're just tuning in, it's a beautiful day here in downtown Erie, but you better enjoy it while you can as we're in for some cooler winds this evening.

I'll be taking requests all afternoon.

So if you're near a phone you can keep me company and tell me how you're spending your gorgeous summer Sunday.

But first, let's shake it up with that thing that makes everything groovy.

(upbeat rock music) ♪ Wild thing ♪ ♪ You make my heart sing ♪ ♪ You make everything groovy ♪ ♪ Wild thing ♪ ♪ Wild thing, I think I love you ♪ ♪ But I wanna know for sure ♪ ♪ Come on, hold me tight ♪ ♪ I love you ♪ ♪ Wild thing ♪ ♪ You make my heart sing ♪ - Where are all the people?

- The beach is further in, a couple miles.

- I bet most folks are headed out.

- So we'll have no time.

- No, that means we've got more beach to ourselves and I'm ready to eat.

- The girls are too.

Do you want some hot dog?

- Hot dog.

(Gerry chuckling) (upbeat acoustic music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) - Boo!

(women shrieks) (people laugh) Hey!

Hey!

Hands off.

These are gonna be first.

(upbeat music continues) (foreboding music) (phone ringing) - Gerry.

- Is everyone okay?

Some people said they saw- - Oh, Gerry.

(sobbing) - What happened, Anita?

(Anita sobbing) I saw it.

- We all did.

And there was a... Oh!

We should come down here sometime.

Make a day of it.

- [Betty] Yes, please.

Before I leave.

- Sure.

- You gonna forget about me?

- Forget about you?

- When I go back to school, are you gonna go chase some other girl?

- Well, maybe just you and I could come down here instead.

- Douglas Tibbets, stop pretending you're a real con, no!

- Oh, we're swimming.

- Doug, don't you dare!

No!

- Oh, we can't wait any longer.

(Betty laughing) (foreboding music) (foreboding music continues) - My name is Chief Descanio.

I've been informed of what happened.

I want you all to know that all of my officers are out on the beach right now looking for what was seen.

We even have a few volunteers coming in to help with the search, but right now I need to understand everything that's happened.

This is Mr. Pintea.

He's from the morning paper.

If there's something out there that's a threat to visitors we need to know.

What's your name?

- Gerald Labelle.

Folks call me Gerry.

- Anita Haifley.

- Douglas Tibbets.

- Betty Jean Klem.

- So tell me what happened when you got down to the beach.

- Well, we came up from Jamestown.

I've been here before, though, with some friends at Beach Six, so I knew where to go.

But the others, it was their first time.

Just came up to picnic, you see.

- I mean, why did you come here?

There's beaches in Jamestown.

- Gerry had been here before and said it was really nice.

Great place to eat and swim.

- What time did you arrive?

- Around 8:00 PM.

We pulled up on the sand near the tables.

- It was a little bit late to start a picnic.

You should have come earlier in the day.

- We weren't planning on it, it just kind of happened.

Betty had made the cake, so we decided to have a picnic.

- And we cooked some food in the barbecue and ate.

Then we were going to drive to the bath house to change into our suits.

No, no.

It's not going.

(car revving) - Try forward again.

(Douglas grunting) (car revving) - Okay.

Okay.

(car door opens) (car door slams) - This is good.

This is kind of good.

(child grumbles) Do you like it?

- Is it stuck?

- It won't even budge.

- What should we do?

- It's getting dark.

- We just need to get some traction.

- We'll need to pull it out.

We need another car or truck.

- [Anita] How is this?

(child mumbles) - I have a friend who could help us.

- [Anita] What friend?

- In Erie.

We need a ride to his house, but he could give us a hand.

- [Betty] Isn't there someone here who could help?

- Probably not without rope.

Look, just don't worry.

Wait here with the car.

Be back before you know it.

(somber music) - [Betty] So much for swimming.

(somber music continues) - [Douglas] They're gonna drop him off real quick.

It shouldn't take long.

(Betty sighs) - Gerry's been to Erie lots of times.

He'll be fine.

(baby grumbles) - Let's go lay the girls down.

- What about the cake?

- [Chief Dascanio] So how did you get to the city?

- I hitched a ride with a nice family and I got some chains from this guy's brother-in-law, but, but when I came back to the beach, there were, there were men with rifles.

I mean, was that typical?

- [Anita] Betty and I laid the girls down in the car.

- And about what time was this?

- The sun was almost gone.

The sky was a reddish purple.

- And what'd you do while you waited?

- We sat there and talked a while and we just waited.

Then a car came up behind us.

It was the officers.

Doug had told them that we'd already sent for help and they told us to stay in the car.

They had to go around the park and tell people to leave.

They said that they would be back in 45 minutes to check in on us.

So we stayed in the car.

(foreboding music) (foreboding music continues) (foreboding music continues) And it must have been about 30 minutes or so because it was dark now.

I kept looking out the back window for Gerry and then Doug said that he saw something in the sky.

- What was it?

- He said it looked like a meteor falling straight down.

- Did you see it?

- I didn't.

I I, I didn't have a good view because I was in the back.

I heard Betty gasp and at the same time I felt the car vibrate.

(mysterious electronic music) I turned around and Doug said that it had landed.

(mysterious electronic music continues) (phone ringing) - Dascanio.

- [Major Hall] Chief Dascanio.

Hi, this is Major William Hall with the United States Air Force out at Youngstown, Ohio.

My officer on duty gave me last night's report with what your group described.

And I'd like to bring a team out to investigate.

- Does what they say sound possible?

- [Major Hall] Well, that is what we'll determine.

I can arrive this afternoon.

(eerie music) - [Pintea] Have you ever seen a UFO before tonight?

- Why, yes.

Just last year, in fact.

(eerie music continues) - I've never seen anything like this before.

Could've never imagined it.

(eerie music continues) - (laughs) Oh yes, I've seen 'em before and so has my pops.

(eerie music continues) - I didn't believe in any of these kinds of things before tonight.

It was just like in the pictures.

(eerie music continues) - God, you know, I can't believe I missed this.

I've, if I'd just waited a little bit longer.

(eerie music continues) - Did you all see it?

- Everyone saw it.

A red light flashed off and on once.

At first, it had a hexagon shape with its edges made out of lights.

It fell from the sky to above the lake in about three to five seconds.

All of a sudden it, it moved really fast across the beach, several hundred yards from the auto.

It hovered there for a bit and it was huge.

Then, then several rotating beams of light scattered the ground as if, as if it was searching for something.

- Why do you think they came to that spot?

- The way I figure it is, the ship was coming to pick it up.

It was searching for it.

- The ship was gone when all this happened.

How could it be scared of the ship?

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It was gone.

But it makes sense.

It must have been on the run.

Why else would a ship come to a quiet beach and start shining lights?

When the cops came back and pulled out and I hit my brakes so that they would see my lights, it was gone.

We told officers what we saw.

(voice echoing) Someone has to figure out what they want.

(eerie music continues) - So what do you think of all this?

Off the record.

- You're the one that got them to do the drawings?

- You think they could pick it out of a lineup?

I'm just curious if you think after speaking with them if this is a bonafide sighting.

You see this kind of thing a lot?

- Well, with most sightings it's fairly easy to determine what people saw.

Planes, balloons, atmospherics.

It's also easy to let your imagination run away and even more so when it's a group.

- Any planes in the sky last night?

- Not here.

- What do you make of that?

- I'd have to say this sighting has a lot more to go on than many I've investigated.

- So if you don't mind me asking, what's your personal opinion on the UFOs?

Are they really out there?

- I've yet to see one.

I, I mean I'm willing to believe they could be out there but I need to see it first to believe it.

I mean, you were with the kids last night.

- Yes.

About an hour after it happened.

- Well, what's your read on them, being with the news media?

- Well, the Tibbets boy, he seems to be enjoying the attention of this a bit too much.

However, that young girl, she was in a highly emotional state.

I'd say about 18 or so years of the newspaper business.

It seemed pretty genuine.

- Excuse me.

Great.

Thanks.

This will be a big help.

Do you mind if we go through it just to be thorough.

(eerie music continues) (eerie music continues) - Miss Klem?

(eerie music continues) All right.

Tell me about what happened when you first saw the lights.

- It was falling, but then it started to get closer.

So we sat there watching it.

Grew it be the size of about a basketball.

(Betty breathing heavily) Rays of light shone from the object.

It lit up the whole woods along its path.

It wasn't like a search light.

It was light along the ground, along its whole path.

- Can you describe the shape of it?

(Betty breathes heavily) - It was mushroom-shaped.

With a narrow base rising to an oval structure having three lights on the back.

(eerie music continues) Doug got out of the car and told them something weird is going on here.

- And what happened when you and Anita waited in the car?

(eerie music continues) (Betty breathes heavily) - What did it sound like?

(voice echoes) (eerie music continues) (silence) (eerie music) (eerie music continues) (eerie music continues) (eerie music continues) - Doug, do you see it?

- Yeah.

(eerie music continues) (eerie music continues) (eerie music continues) (eerie music continues) (door creaks open) (intense music) - No luck yet.

- [Doug] Something weird is going on here.

(intense music continues) (intense music continues) (intense music continues) - After a few minutes, I thought one of them was coming back because...

I heard the sounds of sticks in the bushes.

(eerie music) Do you think it's still out there?

(eerie music continuing) (sticks cracking) (ominous music) (Betty breathing heavily) (ominous music) - Close your eyes.

It's coming!

It's coming.

(Betty screams) (car horn hooting) (Betty screaming) (car horn hooting) (Betty continues screaming) (Betty sobbing) No!

Please!

- Betty!

- No!

- What happened?

It's okay.

It's okay.

What happened?

(Betty sobbing) What happened?

It's okay.

- No!

Please, no!

- What happened?

Tell me.

(Betty sobbing) (eerie music) (eerie music continues) - The newspaper man thinks she's genuine.

What about you?

- I'm convinced these kids saw something.

The girl's a credible person.

Of the two individuals involved, she was the most specific about what she saw.

She didn't make any attempt to change her story or fill in the gaps when she wasn't sure.

She was one scared girl when I first saw her.

You gotta remember this was sometime after she was brought in from the scene of the sighting.

And my officers told me what I saw was nothing compared to her emotional condition when they arrived in the scene.

So yeah, I'm convinced they saw something.

- We will contact each of them and get our own statements as well as analyze the samples that were taken.

The standard protocol is information and results will only be publicly released if a definite explanation can be determined.

- And if it can't be determined?

- (chuckles) It's above my pay grade, unfortunately.

I think for the time being your beach is safe.

Issue a statement.

Invite the people to come back.

There's no monster here.

You and your men have handled yourselves with outstanding professionalism and thanks for your cooperation with our investigation.

Good luck.

(pensive music continues) (pensive music continues) (pensive music continues) - [Narrator] Betty Jean Klem and her friends were not the only ones to see unusual sights in the sky on the night of July 31st.

Local newspapers reported at least a dozen other sightings by individuals and groups around the city of Erie.

All of them claimed they had witnessed an unnaturally moving light over the lake and Presque Isle.

The event made its way into Project Blue Book the official UFO investigation program of the United States Air Force which was ongoing throughout the 1950s and 60s.

(pensive music) - I am here to discuss the so-called flying saucers.

The Air Force interest in this problem has been due to our feeling of an obligation to identify and analyze to the best of our ability anything in the air that may have the possibility of threat or menace to the United States.

- [Narrator] Ultimately, they concluded that the discovery of impressions, tracks and signs of a creature were circumstantial and unrelated to the initial sighting.

However, they were unable to determine the source of lights seen in the sky on the night of July 31st.

The conclusion of the event remains a divided one.

While many now believe their claims to be an embellished hoax with either all or some of the group involved, many more maintain that their account was genuine.

UFOs continue to be witnessed by thousands of individuals each year.

However, for the first time, the United States government has formally acknowledged the existence of UFOs and admitted that they frequently remain unidentified.

On June 25th, 2021, the office of the Director of National Intelligence released a preliminary report revealing that over a 17 year period, Navy personnel and other US armed forces had observed 144 separate UFOs now called UAPs or unidentified aerial phenomenon.

- [Speaker] There's a whole of them, look on the SA.

My gosh!

They're going against the wind, the winds 120 knots west.

- More than 50 years ago, the US government ended Project Blue Book, an effort to catalog and understand sightings of objects in the air that could not otherwise be explained.

In 2017, we learned for the first time that the Department of Defense had quietly restarted a similar organization tracking what we now call unidentified aerial phenomena or UAPs.

- What are UAPs?

Put simply UAP are airborne objects that when encountered cannot be immediately identified.

- Since the early 2000s, we have seen an increasing number of unauthorized and or unidentified aircraft or objects in military controlled training areas.

Reports of sightings are frequent and continuing.

- [Speaker] Reportedly appear to exhibit unusual flight characteristics, appear to demonstrate advanced technology, maneuver abruptly or move at considerable speed.

Without discernible means of propulsion.

- [Speaker] A database has now grown to contain approximately 400 reports.

- [Speaker] It is also the responsibility of our government and this panel to share as much as we can with the American people.

Since excessive secrecy only breeds distrust and speculation.

- [Speaker] That those who report UAPs will be treated as witnesses, not as coots.

- [Speaker] We are all curious and we seek to understand the unknown.

- [Speaker] We are committed to a focused effort to determine their origin- - [Speaker] To shed light on one of the world's most enduring mysteries.

(eerie music) (mysterious music) (mysterious music continues) (mysterious music continues) (mysterious music continues) (mysterious music continues) (mysterious music continues) (mysterious music continues) (mysterious music continues) (mysterious music continues) (mysterious music continues) (mysterious music continues) (mysterious music continues) (mysterious music continues) (mysterious music) (mysterious music continues) (mysterious music continues) (mysterious music continues) (mysterious music continues) - [Narrator] Chronicles was made possible thanks to a community assets grant provided by the Erie County Gaming Revenue Authority, support by the Department of Education and the generous support of Thomas B. Hagen.

We question and learn.