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.
from Pascagoula, the graphic novel by Jason Gleaves
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.
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
1973 is at the height of an unprecedented spike in UFO interest.
The saturation of UFO’s in the culture destroys Calvin’s
prospects of escaping the notoriety of his abduction.
His story ignites a feverish interest.
But what exactly is Calvin's story?
​
This is what he told NBC news.
A few days before Calvin and Waynette are to share their wedding vows, Calvin suffers a serious breakdown. He is tranquilized and chained to a bed in the hospital ward.
Yet Waynette remains true for Calvin, marrying him as planned.
Unequipped both emotionally and rationally to cope with what has happened,
and wanting to force the memories from his mind, Calvin goes underground.
The more he seeks his privacy and his dignity, the more the rapacious
news media mocks and stalks him mercilessly.
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.
But three weeks before their wedding day their world is shattered when Calvin is abducted.
​
Dr. J. Allen Hynek
Calvin's defiant threat to 'leave him the hell alone,' captured by a UPI photographer outside
the Pascagoula police station, becomes an image seen around the world.
​
​
Calvin tells the reporters that he passed out and lost consciousness at first contact with the aliens.
He goes on to state that he has no memories of what happened on board the alien space craft.
But this is not the truth.
Calvin remembered much, but not all, of his grisly encounter, and it traumatized him.
This was the birth of Calvin's cover story.
He saw no use in talking about the encounter, nor in re-experiencing the trauma.
So Calvin went silent.
​
​
He and Waynette move from town to town, like hunted prey, or fugitives,
as his identity becomes known.
Calvin is plagued by demonic visions and lives in a shadowland,
careening between the margins of society and the terrifying flashbacks that haunt him.
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, shame and terror lead to breakdowns and failure.
​
One minute Calvin Parker had his youth, his vigor, his confidence, and a bold plan for the future,
but with the appearance of an alien craft over the Pascagoula River everything
that ever mattered was taken away in a flash.
​
This is Calvin's true story of redemption and return.
This is Calvin's stoand return
​
ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE
When The UFO's Fell On Dixie by Joe Eszterhas January 1974.
​