Have people really been 'killed by aliens?' Expert weighs in on fatalities linked to UFOs

Many reports of untimely deaths in the US have been linked to aliens, sparking theories that these individuals may have been murdered by the third kind.

They include a US Air Force pilot who died shortly after claims he witnessed a flying object and a Brazilian man who was 'zapped in the head by an extraterrestrial.'

Nigel Watson, a UFO researcher from Sheffield Hallam University in the UK, has written about the cases in a new book, Death By UFO, which investigates these mysterious deaths.

UFO believers are on a missions to prove that aliens were behind many high-profile murders in the past few decades

Watson has spent years researching UFO reports worldwide and published several books and reports about his findings.

Fatal encounter in the skies

One of the cases explored in the book is the death of U.S. Air Force Captain Thomas Mantell who was asked to investigate a silvery, conical flying object in 1948.

Reports have claimed that Mantell, who was a 25-year-old Second World War hero, and three other pilots were conducting training exercise when the request came in to investigate a high-flying silvery object tipped with red. 

'It appears to be a metallic object or possibly the reflection of the sun from a metallic object, and it is of tremendous size,' Mantell reported as he flew in the skies above Fort Knox in Kentucky.

The three planes soared 22,000ft into the air to intercept the object. 

Captain Thomas Mantell died after he followed a mysterious metallic object in his jet

At 2.45pm, Mantell radioed the tower that he had spotted the object.

'The object is directly ahead of me and above me now, moving at about half my speed,' he said. 

He provided another update 30 minutes later: 'It appears to be a metallic object or possible reflections of sun from a metallic object, and it is of tremendous size. I’m still climbing. The object is above and ahead of me moving at my speed or faster. I’m trying to close in for a better look.'

Shortly after, the two other planes had to aborted the mission due to a lack of oxygen supplies.

Mantell, however, continued soaring higher and higher - reaching around 25,000ft.

But at 5pm, debris from his plane was discovered in Shelby County, south-east of Louisville.

The U.S. Air Force first claimed he was chasing the planet Venus, but then said the object was a secret CIA-sponsored Skyhook balloon launched in Southern Ohio.

UFO believers still maintain that Mantell met his demise at the hands of a murderous UFO, Watson said - with the Skyhook explanation not being revealed until the late 1960s.

Zapped by 'death ray'

Brazilian man Inacio de Souza and his wife were returning to their home in August 1967 when they saw an object shaped like an inverted wash basin - and three men wearing skin-tight clothes.

Souza reflexively shot one of the men with his rifle It seemed to have no effect, but a green ray of light shot out at Souza's head from the UFO.

De Souza fell unconscious and suffered numbness and tremors in his head and hands.

A doctor suggested that Souza had merely suffered hallucinations - and a few days later was diagnosed as having leukemia. The illness progressed quickly and he died on 11 October 1967.

Watson wrote: 'While some ufologists think the encounter and de Souza's illness are simply a tragic coincidence, others prefer to believe that the green light from the UFO was an intense beam of deadly radiation.'

'Heavy rain' from a UFO

In 1947, Harold A Dahl along with his son Charles and two crewmen were in a tugboat off Maury Island in Puget Sound between Seattle and Tacoma.

The men said they saw six golden and silver doughnut-shaped objects above them - with one 'wobbling' before releasing a rain of thin metallic strips and black lumps.

Harold Dahl was in a tugboat with his sons when he saw mysterious golden and silver objects above them

One struck the boy's arm, burning it, and their dog died.

Dahl's boss Fred Lee Crisman visited the site and claimed some of the debris.

Dahl was then confronted by a dark-suited man driving a black sedan who drove him to a diner in Tacoma and warned him to keep silent.

Kenneth Arnold - who had spotted 'flying saucers' just days earlier - asked for help from Air Force Intelligence.

On 31 July 1947, Captain William Davidson and Lieutenant Frank M Brown were dispatched to Tacoma, but found no evidence of a rain of molten lead, and thought the sample fragments were slag from a smelting plant.

Davidson and Brown died when their B-25 crashed on their way back to base - and many of the samples and photographs associated with the case vanished.

Watson writes: 'To many, this all smacked of a military-intelligence cover-up. When, in October 1968, District Attorney Jim Garrison brought Clay Shaw to trial for his suspected involvement in the assassination of John F Kennedy, a Fred Lee Crisman was subpoenaed to attend.

Kenneth Arnold, who saw the first 'flying saucers'

A B-25 bomber aircraft similar to the one the men rode in

'Garrison believed Shaw and Crisman were long-standing CIA employees involved in a range of dubious activities including the JFK killing.

'As they were returning to their base at Hamilton Field, California, the port engine of their B-25 aircraft caught fire and they were killed when he crashed near Kelso, Washington State. An anonymous caller to the local newspaper, named the victims before the crash was made public and claimed the aircraft was shot down by a 20mm cannon because it was carrying fragments of a flying saucer.'

'When Kenneth Arnold took off from Tacoma, his engine failed and he had to make a crash landing. On checking his aircraft, he found that his fuel valve had been switched off. Paul Lance, a reporter for the Tacoma Times, who covered this story, died suddenly two weeks later of meningitis.'

'Many of these stories sound outlandish and many of these deaths do have credible explanations. So they don't go much beyond the UFO community. Government agencies or the notorious Men in Black, could be at work but it seems very extreme to murder people, especially over decades, when there are easier ways to discredit UFO researchers..'

'Frozen' near a UFO

New York UFO researcher Jennifer Stevens was contacted by two boys in February 1968 who claimed to have seen a 'glowing fireball' over the Mohawk River.

The boy's friend thought he saw a white-suited humanoid in bushes.

Another 16-year-old boy's body was found nearby after leaving a note with his grandparents to say he was going for a walk.

Watson writes: 'The coroner's verdict was death from exposure, but Stevens was convinced that his death was connected to UFO activity in the area. She noted that the boy's tracks in the snow indicated he had been running at first, then it seemed as if something had dragged him from above.'

After the sighting, Stevens husband was accosted by a man who said, 'People who look for UFOs should be very careful.'

When her husband died suddenly, Stevens gave up her UFO investigations.