The 'I.N.F.O. JOURNAL' (box 367., Arlington, VA, 22210), publication devoted to 'Fortean' research, Vol. IV, No. 2 issue, related one of the most frightening and disturbing accounts of subterranean abduction that we have come across yet. The article, titled 'MOUNTAIN OF DEATH' and written by David D. Browne, originally appeared in the June 1972 issue of WALKABOUT, published in Sydney, Australia:
"Black Mountain comes almost as a shock when you see it first."In Brisbane's Public Library, a yellowing newspaper cutting tells some of the story:"Traveling by bus just south of Cooktown, North Queensland (Australia), a bend in the road suddenly discloses it and the visual impact can bring an involuntary exclamation, as you see it -- black, bare and sinister, a 1,000 ft. high pile of enormous boulders two miles long, rearing out of the rain-forest.
"This is 'the Mountain of Death.' Aborigines will not go near it. An ancient legend warns them of danger. White men fear it too, because of the numbers of men who have gone there and disappeared without a trace, as if the earth -- or the mountain - - had swallowed them. Birds and animals shun the area.
"The rocks give off a curious metallic ring when struck, and the only sound is the croaking of countless frogs sheltered in the depths where the great granite boulders lie against each other.
"'Grim tragedy has been associated with the mountain ever since it has been known to white man."Then following the names and occupations of several others who disappeared, and the dates of their disappearance. The cutting continues:"'Three men with horses completely disappeared at the mountain. They vanished as if the earth had opened and swallowed them up, for absolutely no trace of them has ever been discovered, although police and backtrackers and hundreds of local residents scoured the mountain and surrounding country.'
"'This constitutes one of the most amazing stories in the police history of the far north, for not one of the mysteries has been solved and probably never will be.'"Another newspaper cutting, signed Nancy Francis, reads:
"'The formation of these mountains is unique; their appearance grotesque. They are mountains of huge boulders full of chasms that go down to unsounded depths. Only a few rock wallabies and a few turkeys live near these grim, forbidding hills. The Aborigines regard the Black Mountains with dread.'"In the files of the Cooktown police, dating back 25 years, there is a report made by a Sergeant of Police who discussed the mountain with a man whom he refers to as Mac.
Mac began:
"'Know anything about Black Mountain, or so-called 'Mountain of Death'? Its aboriginal name is Kalcajagga.'"The latest fatalities, he reported, had occurred only a few years earlier when two young men set out to solve the riddle of earlier disappearances in the caves. They were never heard of again. Two black trackers who tried to trace them disappeared too."'What does it look like at close quarters?' I asked.
"'Just a mass of tumbled granite blocks; hardly any vegetation. The only living things there are black rock wallabies and enormous pythons 16 feet or more long and able to swallow a wallaby whole. The ridge is honeycombed with caves, nearly all unexplored. They dip down below ground level but nobody knows their extent or what they contain.'
"Then Mac went back to the beginning of the mountain's grim story.
"The first-known fatality was that of a carrier named Grayner, in 1977. He had been searching on horseback for strayed bullocks when he, with his horse and bullocks, vanished without a trace. Thirteen years later, Constable Ryan, stationed at Cooktown, tracked a 'wanted' man to the scrub at the foot of the mountain. Other trackers followed his trail to the entrance of one of the caves, but he was never seen again. Nor was the 'wanted' man."More recently a gold prospector named Renn was added to the list of mysterious disappearances.
"Well-organized police teams with trackers combed the whole area for weeks without finding him.
"Then there was the case of Harry Owens, a station owner from Oakley Creek. One Sunday morning he rode over towards Black Mountain looking for strayed cattle. When he didn't return on time his partner, George Hawkins, alerted the police then went out to look for him himself. But by the time the police joined in the search, Hawkins had also disappeared. Two of the native police trackers entered one of the caves. ONLY ONE OF THEM CAME OUT. He was so unnerved by what seemed to have been an experience of terror that he could give no clear account of what happened to them both.
"Mac even knew a white men who had penetrated the caves and lived to tell the tale, and produced a newspaper cutting of his story. It read:
"'Armed with a revolver and a strong electric torch I stepped into the opening. Like other Black Mountain caverns it dipped steeply downwards, narrowing as it went."Such are some of the weird stories told of the mountain."'Suddenly I found myself facing a solid wall of rock, but to the right there was a passageway just large enough for me to enter in a stooping position. I moved along it carefully for several yards. The floor was fairly level, the walls of very smooth granite. The passage twisted this way and that, always sloping deeper into the earth.
"'Presently I began to feel uneasy. A huge bat beat its wings against me as it passed, but I forced myself to push on. Soon my nostrils were filled WITH A SICKLY, MUSTY STENCH. THEN MY TORCH WENT OUT.
"'I was in total darkness. It was inky black. From somewhere that seemed like the bowels of the earth I could hear faint moaning of bats.
"'I began to get panicky and I groped and floundered back the way I thought I had come. My arms and legs bleeding from bumps with unseen rocks. My outstretched hands clawed at space where I expected solid wall and floor. At one stage where I wandered into a side passage I came to what was undoubtedly the brink of a precipice, judging by the echoes.
"'The air was FOUL and I felt increasing DIZZINESS.
"'Terrifying thoughts were racing through my mind about giant rock pythons I have often seen around Black Mountain.
"'As I crawled along, getting weaker and losing all hope of ever getting out alive, I saw a tiny streak of light. It gave me super strength to worm my way towards a small cave mouth half a mile from the one I had entered.
"'Reaching the open air, I gulped in lungfulls of it and fell down exhausted.
"'I found I had been underground for five hours, most of the time on my hands and knees. A king's ransom would not induce me to enter those caves again...'
"These and the extraordinary structure of the mountain itself give rise to many questions, scientific and otherwise.
"On the scientific aspect, the following comments come from a member of the staff of the James Cook University of North Queensland, Dept. of Geology, Associate Professor P.J. Stephenson.
"He says, 'I have visited and climbed the mountain concerned. It is composed of huge granite boulders covered with black lichen. The complete black surface coating may be uncommon but the boulder pile is less so. Near Chillagoe and at several other localities in north Queensland similar phenomena exist.
"'The occurrences are somewhat puzzling because of their relative rarity. However, they must have been produced by rapid erosion of the 'skeletal' soil profile. Many soil profiles contain fresh rock 'kernels' in them and removal of the soil component would produce a boulder pile. But such removal takes place so slowly the 'kernels' also weather completely...'
"There are still some practical questions to ask, however.
"What really did happen to those people who at various times in the last hundred years, have been said to disappear, vanish without a trace?
"...Any party that decides to unravel the mystery of the mountain will need to be very carefully organized and equipped to meet any hazard, likely or unlikely -- not forgetting the possibility of meeting a very real python. CR: Simpson."
In apparent relation to William Cooper's allegations concerning the connections between the Kennedy assassination, MJ- 12, UFO's and so on we have the following very interesting yet very disturbing 'connection' which was related by John Keel in his book 'OUR HAUNTED PLANET' (1968., Fawcett Crest., Greenwich, Conn.):
"In his detailed report on the Maury Island UFO (incident) of 1947, Kenneth Arnold also describes meeting a small, dark foreign looking man who was tinkering with the motor on a beat-up boat in TACOMA HARBOR. Ray Palmer, editor of 'AMAZING STORIES' in Chicago, had commissioned Arnold to investigate the puzzling Maury Island affair, which began when a 'donut-shaped object' had rained 'slag' onto a boat near Maury Island. Pieces of that slag had killed a dog aboard the boat and slightly injured a boy, the son of Harold Dahl, who was piloting it. Early the next morning, according to Dahl's story, a 1947 Buick drove up to his home and a black-suited man of medium height visited him. This man, Dahl said, recited in detail everything that had happened the day before AS IF HE HAD BEEN THERE. Then he warned Dahl not to discuss his sighting to anyone, hinting that if he did there might be unpleasant repercussions which would affect him and his family. Since Dahl and the others had not yet told anyone of their sighting, and since UFOs were still publicly unknown (Arnold's sighting over Mount Rainier and the attendant publicity did not occur until three days later), Dahl was naturally nonplussed by his strange visitor. This was the first modern MIB report.
"Dahl's boss, FRED L. CRISMAN (he also owned the boat), became a central figure in the mystery. DAHL HIMSELF VANISHED SOON AFTER HIS INTERVIEW WITH ARNOLD, and the efforts by later investigators (such as Harold T. Wilkins, a British author) have failed to locate him. Crisman had been A FLIER IN WORLD WAR II, and he was suddenly RECALLED into the service in 1947, FLOWN TO ALASKA, and later stationed in Greenland. In recent years amateur sleuths engaged in investigating the alleged conspiracy to assassinate President John F. Kennedy have tried to implicate CRISMAN. District Attorney JAMES GARRISON of New Orleans subpoenaed one FRED LEE CRISMAN of TACOMA, WASHINGTON, to testify before the Grand Jury listening to Garrison's evidence against Clay Shaw (as is portrayed in the best-selling movie 'JFK' - Branton), according to wire service stories in November, 1968. Crisman was identified as a radio announcer, but Garrison's investigations implied that HE WAS EITHER A MEMBER OF THE CIA OR HAD BEEN 'ENGAGED IN UNDERCOVER ACTIVITY FOR A PART OF THE INDUSTRIAL WARFARE COMPLEX.' He allegedly operated under a cover as a preacher and was 'engaged in work to help Gypsies.' These stories caused a chain reaction in UFO circles, since UFO believers have long accused the CIA of being somehow connected with the flying saucer mystery. Of course, the CIA was in its infancy in 1947 at the time of the Maury Island case and was then largely staffed by NAVAL personnel from World War II intelligence units.
"Clay Shaw was tried early in 1969, accused by Garrison of having conspired to murder President Kennedy. He was found innocent and freed. The exact nature of Crisman's testimony before the Grand Jury IS NOT KNOWN. He did not testify at the actual trial...
"The Maury Island case fell apart in Arnold's hands. The slag samples given to him by Dahl and Crisman WERE SWITCHED BY SOMEONE; two investigating Air Force officers, Brown and Davidson, WERE KILLED WHEN THEIR PLANE CRASHED shortly after leaving Tacoma; DAHL VANISHED; Crisman was literally exiled to Greenland for two years; Tacoma newsman Paul Lance, who helped Arnold in his investigation, DIED SUDDENLY A SHORT TIME LATER. Palmer claims that a cigar box filled with original slag samples WAS STOLEN from his Chicago office soon afterwards.
"At one point Ted Morello of the United Press took Arnold aside and told him:
"'You're involved in something that is beyond our power here to find out anything about... We tried to find out information at McChord Field (the Tacoma Air Force base) and drew a blank, and we have informants there who practically smell the runaways for news... We've exhausted every avenue attempting to piece what has happened together so it makes some sense... I'm just going to give you some sound advice. Get out of this town until whatever it is blows over.'"Arnold got into his private plane and headed for home. He stopped in Pendleton, Oregon, to refuel, and shortly after he took off again, HIS ENGINE STOPPED COLD. Only quick thinking and expert flying saved him from a serious crash..."
The following locations are areas where, according to various sources, actual conflicts have taken place between humans and, in most cases, sauroid-reptilian beings. Most of these conflicts have taken place within or near entrances to underlying artificial tunnels or natural cavern systems.
Each site will be NAMED, followed by the TYPE of conflict (ranging from abductions or mutilations against humans by the saurians-reptilians; to battles or attacks upon the saurians by human forces); Next, the specific SITE of the 'conflict'; followed by a DESCRIPTION of the human and alien beings involved in the conflict; And finally the SOURCE of the information. Although many such conflicts have allegedly taken place in other countries, the highest concentrations seem to have occurred in the U.S., which will be the major focus of this list.
These sites are as follows:
"Dear Rap (i.e. Raymond A. Palmer):The number of 'casualties' keep pouring in..."I have been following your pursuits of UFO(s)... through your magazines for some time with consuming interest, especially the Shaver Mystery. There's an item or two concerning this that I have been intending to write you about for some time. Sometimes during the year about 1946 to 1947 I heard that Dr. William Beebee wrote an article published in the 'Atlantic Monthly' in which he made a remark about 'the coming invasion of the earth by the underground race.' When I remarked on this to a fellow worker of mine he said 'Isn't he the scientist - oceanographer who disappeared?' I was startled by his sudden question and said that I didn't know, and asked if he knew anything of the circumstances surrounding his disappearance. He said he understood or heard that on one of Dr. Beebee's descents to the ocean floor OFF THE COAST OF FLORIDA, he was missing from the inside the diving bell when it was brought up! Do you have anything on this? I had been wanting to look for some corroboration of this to see if it could be true or if the present whereabouts of William Beebee is known. Then I am reminded of the disappearance of another prominent person, the world traveler and explorer Richard Halliburton. I am sure I read only a few years ago that he was presumed to be lost at Sea in a storm...."