by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear

In last week’s blog, we looked at a case involving a 1979 report by a forestry worker in Scotland who said he not only saw a mysterious domed object sitting on the ground, but that he was assaulted by two spherical objects with spike-like protrusions that rolled towards him rapidly, rolled over onto his sides, and seemed to be pulling on his pants. At this point he went unconscious. According to him, when he came to, he heard a “whooshing” noise and then saw that the object was gone. He was extremely thirsty, had a headache, pain in his chin and legs, and couldn’t walk or speak. He crawled back to his pickup truck, which was 300 meters away, found himself incapable of driving it, but was then able to make his way home on foot. Upon returning “with others” the next day, there were physical traces seen that gave support to his claims. This week, we’ll look at the aftermath and the physical evidence.

The case got the attention of Flying Saucer Review Editor Charles Bowen, who made arrangements to have it investigated by members of the UFO Investigators Network, an organization funded by FSR and formed in 1977 with the help of Jenny Randles who had proposed the idea. The resulting three-part report by UFOIN investigators Martin Keatman and Andrew Collins appears in the November-December 1979, Spring 1980, and September 1980 issues.

According to Keatman and Collins, when Taylor got home, as soon as he walked through the door, he asked his wife “for a drink to quench his intense thirst.” She described him as “ghastly” and in a state of shock. His speech had returned to the point where he was able to mumble words to the effect that he’d been attacked. Mrs. Drummond suggested he get out of his dirty clothes and take a bath, which he did, and then called his boss, Malcolm Drummond, who drove over immediately.

After Taylor’s wife described the situation, Drummond went upstairs to the bathroom to try and get some details. While he acknowledged something real had happened to Taylor, according to him, he thought he might have “fallen on his head, or something,” when Taylor mentioned “space ships” and “things coming towards him.”

According to Keatman and Collins, Drummond called a doctor, who came over and examined Taylor. It was seen that he had a red mark that was 4 cm long and 1.5 cm wide under his chin and a similar mark on his left hip in the area where he said he was being pulled.

Taylor’s pants “a general-purpose police issue,” were torn on both hips and his long underwear was torn only on the left.

Drummond and the doctor went to the site and found the pickup truck with its ignition on and door open. They considered the idea that Taylor had fallen out of the truck and knocked himself out. Finding nothing else, they went back to Taylor’s house.

By this time, Taylor was dressed and suggested he take them to where the encounter took place to try and find any marks left by the “vehicle.” The doctor, instead, went home, and Taylor went with Drummond back to the site.  Taylor is described as being almost back to normal at this point “with only a headache, slight pains, and some thirst lingering on.”

According to Keatman and Collins, they found marks at the site that consisted of a series of indentations that looked like those left by horse hooves, and two parallel lines of eight  rectangular impressions that looked like marks left by tracks. The hoof-like indentations circled each set of “track” marks and the spot where Taylor was left unconscious as if they had left the “vehicle” and returned. There were also marks that looked like they were made by Taylor’s boots dragging along the ground.

Drummond took Taylor back home and radioed for a group of LDC workers to put up a fence to protect the marks from the curious. He then went to his house and called the Livingston Police. He went back to the site and was met by seven officers from Livingston and Bathgate, “including a superintendent.” Drummond took them to the area of the encounter “and they seemed totally baffled.”

A police photographer took pictures as other officers made measurements and sketches. The superintendent went over to Drummond and said, “When I came on duty at two o’clock, I didn’t have a care in the world; now look at this!”

Taylor went to a hospital for a head x-ray on the advice of the doctor and left after becoming annoyed at being kept waiting for more than two-and-a-half hours and then being told that they wanted to give him a full physical. He was then interviewed by the police in the late afternoon.

According to Keatman and Collins, Taylor and his family recounted the events “many times, but not once did it change in any way.” They give Taylor’s estimate of the spheres as two-and-a-half feet in diameter, and of the “six equidistant ‘spikes’” as one-and-a-half feet long.

An LDC photographer took photos, but they ended up in the hands of the police who “thwarted” attempts by the researchers to obtain copies. The police also went to Taylor’s house when his daughter was there alone and took the clothes he was wearing during his reported encounter “for forensic analysis.”

As part of the investigation, Keatman and Collins made “numerous enquiries” in an effort “to establish if any folklore, mystical, or UFO type events had been associated with Deer Hill or Livingston in the past.” They reference FSR Volume 24, No. 5 (March 1979) which has a report of a low-altitude object that seemed to be “scanning the ground” with “an intensely bright, white” searchlight less than 2km from the Detchmont Woods site.  They also discovered a case where a young girl disappeared  “a couple of years ago” on a “harsh wintry evening” and was found by a search party (which included Taylor) warm and dry under some trees “a few hundred metres from where Bob claimed to have had his experience.” She said she had “followed the sheep.”

Part II details the investigators clearing the snow from the impressions with Taylor, his son, a friend, and two people from the LDC, and they comment that it had served as a protective covering. They note that measurements for radiation and magnetic anomalies showed nothing unusual. They then go into details about Taylor’s pants and long underwear (they were able to examine them under supervision at Edinburgh H.Q. forensic laboratories), the investigation by police, and the physical effects on Taylor. It is noted that he and Lara (his Irish Setter who was with him) both lost their appetites for five days after the reported encounter.

Part III has details of other sightings in the area that fall and of a follow-up visit with Taylor. It is reported that he underwent regressive hypnosis at the request of “an American newspaper,” and that the story that came out of that matched the one he told in conscious recall. Keatman and Collins conclude that Taylor related real events just as he had experienced them.