CALVIN PARKER
This is the true story of Calvin Parker, a Mississippi teenager who experiences a UFO abduction
that leaves him traumatized and places him at the center of an international media frenzy. At the
time of his 1973 abduction, Calvin’s a brawling country boy in the process of turning his checkered reputation around so he can start a new life with his soon-to-be bride Waynette.
But three weeks before their wedding day their world is shattered when Calvin is abducted.
from Pascagoula, the graphic novel by Jason Gleaves
Dr. J. Allen Hynek
Within hours of hearing about Calvin's abduction, the world's most famous UFO authority, J.Allen Hynek (Project Blue Book) flies down to Pascagoula to question and examine Calvin and co-abductee Charlie Hickson. Hynek's conclusion shocks the world and marks a turning point in public perception of abduction events:
There's simply no question in my mind that these men had a very real, frightening experiences.
I find them to be 100% honest men. Under no circumstances should they be ridiculed.
Let's protect them."
Yet Calvin Parker is not protected. He is hunted and haunted - by both his
traumatic memories and by the cruel and callous media hungry for sensation.
1973 is at the height of an unprecedented spike in UFO interest across the country. It is an era of unanswerable questions and unending debates, creating the perfect storm of conditions for word of Calvin’s abduction to catch like wildfire. The entire nation turns its' eyes toward Calvin Parker
Within days of the encounter, both Johnny Carson and Walter Cronkite
make references to Calvin on national television.
Walter Cronkite
October 16, 1973
Johnny Carson
October 14, 1973
Calvin's defiant 'leave me the hell alone, or else,' threat to to a world press that is
rapidly descending on him is captured by a UPI photographer and it becomes an
image seen around the world, instantly making Calvin infamous and a
target for all comers, well intentioned or not.
His story ignites a feverish interest.
But what exactly is Calvin's story?
This is what he tells NBC news the morning after the encounter.
A few days before Calvin and Waynette are to share their wedding vows, Calvin suffers a nervous breakdown. He is tranquilized and chained to a bed in the hospital ward.
Yet Waynette fights off family and friends and insists of going through with the marriage.
The more Calvin seeks his privacy and his dignity, the more the rapacious
news media stalks and mocks him mercilessly.
When The UFO's Fell On Dixie by Joe Eszterhas January 1974.
This cover story written by the soon to famous screenwriter Joe Eszterhas is dripping
with withering condescension and brutal dismissal. It paints vicious stereotypes of
rednecks as racist, incestious, high school drop outs too dumb for their own good.
Mississippians, and Calvin were target practice for the big city hipster.
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Unequipped to cope with what has happened, and wanting to force the memories from his mind, Calvin makes a dramatic decision to go underground.
He and Waynette move away from their families and their hometown and
begin their marriage of a fugitive life on the road moving from town to town
whenever Calvin's identity as the crazy abductee becomes known.
He is plagued by terrifying flashbacks, demonic visions and
lives in a shadowland of regret for what once was.
Calvin remains steadfast in keeping his silence about the encounter.
Not even Waynette can pierce the shell.
But there's no mistaking the trauma that's just beneath the surface.
Eventually, his shame and his terror lead to breakdowns and failure.
The promise of their young love ends as Calvin and Waynette divorce.
But all is not lost.
It takes decades, a meeting with the legendary Budd Hopkins, and an
unbreakable love that lasts across a lifetime, to find the healing necessary.
This is Calvin's true story of redemption and return.
From a broken home, Calvin falls hard for Waynette and sees a clear opportunity to
put the troubled past behind him and start a family of his own.
Calvin goes on to claim that he has absolutely no memories of
what happened on board the alien space craft.
But this is a lie - he retains flashbacks of memory detailing
his grisly encounter, during which he
violated by an entity he believes to be a female alien.
The idea that "he passed out" becomes Calvin's cover story.
He saw no use in talking about the encounter, nor in re-experiencing the trauma.
So Calvin went silent.