Disputed
Arne Cheyenne Johnson's possession defence
The 1981 killing of Alan Bono in Brookfield, Connecticut, and the murder trial in which Arne Cheyenne Johnson's lawyer tried to argue demonic possession.
Someone Who Was ThereObscurity 5 of 7
Claimed sighting
Betty and Barney Hill abduction
Betty and Barney Hill, a couple from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, said aliens abducted them in the White Mountains in September 1961. The New York Times credits their story with a national fixation on alien abduction.
Someone Who Was ThereObscurity 1 of 7
Claimed sighting
Colonel Shaw's encounter near Lodi
The Stockton Evening Mail of 27 November 1896 printed Colonel H. G. Shaw's first-person account of meeting three tall, slender beings on a road near Lodi, California. Guinness World Records says writers broadly regard it as the first published account of its kind.
Someone Who Was ThereObscurity 7 of 7
Disputed
Gambo, the Gambian sea creature
On 12 June 1983, Owen Burnham and three relatives came across the carcass of a large sea creature at Bungalow Beach on The Gambia's coast. Cryptozoologist Karl Shuker and others recorded his account.
Someone Who Was ThereObscurity 7 of 7
Disputed
Houdini's Margery sitting
On 23 July 1924, Harry Houdini and a Scientific American party attended a séance with the medium known as Margery at 10 Lime Street, Boston.
Someone Who Was ThereObscurity 5 of 7
Disputed
Ingo Swann's Jupiter session
On the evening of 27 April 1973, Ingo Swann gave a recorded remote viewing of Jupiter for researchers at SRI, years before spacecraft reached the planet. Supporters and sceptics assess it differently.
Someone Who Was ThereObscurity 1 of 7
Disputed
John Williams's dream of the Perceval shooting
Williams, a Redruth man in Cornwall, said he dreamed of a shooting in the House of Commons lobby before Prime Minister Spencer Perceval was shot there on 11 May 1812. The accounts disagree on which night he had the dream.
Someone Who Was ThereObscurity 7 of 7
Claimed sighting
Kenneth Arnold's flying saucers
On June 24, 1947, private pilot Kenneth Arnold said he saw nine shining objects race past him close to Mount Rainier, Washington. His report gave the world the phrase "flying saucer".
Someone Who Was ThereObscurity 2 of 7
Claimed sighting
Lord Brougham's vision in the bath
From his bath, Henry Brougham saw his friend G--- sitting calmly on a chair. He wrote the whole thing down at once, dated 19 December.
Someone Who Was ThereObscurity 3 of 7
Claimed sighting
Marius Dewilde at Quarouble
Marius Dewilde, a metalworker, said he found a dark craft on the railway line by his house in Quarouble, France, on the night of 10 September 1954.
Someone Who Was ThereObscurity 5 of 7
Claimed sighting
The 1913 meteor procession
Fireballs crossed the sky as a procession on 9 February 1913, seen from Canada, the north-eastern United States, Bermuda and ships heading toward Brazil.
Someone Who Was ThereObscurity 7 of 7
Claimed sighting
The Becker family haunting
Ed Becker's account of a haunted family home that led, in his telling, to an exorcism broadcast by NBC in 1971, the basis of his books and a Screen Gems film project.
Someone Who Was ThereObscurity 6 of 7
Claimed sighting
The Boianai UFO sightings
On the evenings of 26 and 27 June 1959, Father William Booth Gill and mission parishioners at Boianai, Papua, reported UFOs and human-like figures. A later study proposes bright planets seen through cloud.
Someone Who Was ThereObscurity 6 of 7
Claimed sighting
The Carl Higdon encounter
Carl Higdon, an oil well driller, said he met a being named Ausso while elk hunting in Wyoming on 25 October 1974, and was taken to another planet.
Someone Who Was ThereObscurity 3 of 7
Claimed sighting
The Coyne helicopter incident
On 18 October 1973 the crew of an Army helicopter near Mansfield, Ohio, reported a red light converging on them. Philip Klass later said the object was a fireball from the Orionid meteor shower.
Someone Who Was ThereObscurity 6 of 7
Disputed
The Davenport Brothers riot in Liverpool
At a show in the small concert room of St George's Hall, Liverpool, in February 1865, the audience tied the Davenport Brothers into their cabinet. A riot followed and the cabinet was smashed.
Someone Who Was ThereObscurity 5 of 7
Disputed
The Demon House of Gary, Indiana
A rental house on Carolina Street in Gary, Indiana, where tenant Latoya Ammons said demons had possessed her and her three children. The Indianapolis Star reported its demolition in 2016.
Someone Who Was ThereObscurity 4 of 7
Claimed sighting
The Falcon Lake incident
On 20 May 1967 Stefan Michalak, an amateur geologist, said he saw two glowing craft while prospecting around Falcon Lake, Manitoba. One, he said, set down on rocky ground.
Someone Who Was ThereObscurity 2 of 7