Warren, Minnesota - Val Johnson Case (8-27-1979)
From The Black Vault Encyclopedia Project
The Val Johnson UFO Incident occurred in 1979 in Marshall County, Minnesota. The incident involved Val Johnson, a Marshall County Deputy Sheriff, and is classified as a Close Encounter of the Second Kind (CE2).
Contents |
The Incident
In the early morning hours of August 27, 1979, deputy sheriff Val Johnson was driving his patrol car, a 1977 Ford LTD, on a rural highway in Marshall County not far from the North Dakota border. At 1:40 am he saw a bright light to his south, along a group of trees some distance from his car. Since he had heard rumors that smugglers from Canada were using small airplanes to deliver illegal drugs to the area, Johnson initially thought the light might be from a downed airplane. To get a closer look he turned his patrol car onto Highway 220 and increased his speed to 65 MPH. (The UFO Book, p.357) Strangely, Johnson noticed that the light was not illuminating the surrounding area. Suddenly, the light started to move towards him and almost instantly covered an estimated mile and a half before resting above his car. Johnson later stated that "I heard glass breaking and saw the inside of the car light up real bright with white light...after the light hit my vehicle, I don't remember a thing." (The UFO Book, p.357) When he awoke, his head was resting on the steering wheel; Johnson then noticed that his patrol car had skidded across the highway's southbound lane and now faced eastward. He was also having vision problems. At this point (2:19 am) Johnson radioed the Marshall County Sheriff's Department in Warren, Minnesota for help. He answered the dispatcher's questions with "Something just hit my car. I don't know how to explain it...I heard glass breaking and my brakes lock up. I don't know what the hell happened." (UFO Book, p.357) A fellow deputy sheriff, Greg Winskowski, arrived to help. He noticed that Johnson had a red bump on his forehead, and concluded that Johnson had hit his head on the steering wheel and been knocked out. Winskowski called an ambulance; the ambulance driver thought that Johnson was in "a mild state of shock." (UFO Book, p.357) At the county hospital in Warren, Minnesota, Dr. W.A. Pinsonneault tried to examine Johnson's eyes, but found that shining a light onto them caused Johnson extreme pain. He also noticed a "pinkish irritation" covering Johnson's eyes. The doctor compared Johnson's eye injury to "mild welder's burns", and gave him some salve and bandages. Johnson then gave a statement at the police station and was taken home. (UFO Book, p.357)
Damage to Johnson's Patrol Car
The next morning Marshall County Sheriff Dennis Brekke took Johnson's LTD to the police garage to have it examined. The drive was difficult due to the vehicle's damages. Mechanics at the police garage found, according to UFO historian Jerome Clark, that the car was damaged in "peculiar ways." (UFO Book, p.358) Among the problems: the car's inside driver's side headlight was smashed, but not it's companion to the left. On the hood, close to the windshield, was a circular dent a half-inch in diameter. There was a crack in the windshield which ran from the top to the bottom; the crack showed four impact points which may have been caused by "small objects, stones perhaps." The car's dashboard clock, set correctly at 7 pm when Johnson had reported for duty, was now 14 minutes late (Johnson's wristwatch was also 14 minutes late). An investigator noted that "the 'creases' in the rear of the [circular] dent reveal [that] the pressure of the blow was delivered primarily downward and toward the windshield." (UFO Book, p.358) Allan Hendry, an astronomer and the primary field investigator for the Center for UFO Studies, saw Johnson's car shortly after the sighting and noted more "peculiar" damages. Among them: the red plastic lens covering the roof light had a triangular puncture, and the lens had been knocked loose; the shaft of the radio antenna had been bent at a 60-degree angle five inches above the hood. The radio antenna on the vehicle's trunk had been bent at a 90-degree angle, but only at the top three inches; and all the damage "favored" the driver's side of the vehicle. (UFO Book, p.358)
Investigation
After taking Johnson's patrol car to the police garage, Sheriff Brekke drove Johnson to the city of Grand Forks, North Dakota for a more thorough eye exam. Dr. Leonard Prochaska found that Johnson's eyes "had cleared up", but Dr. Prochaska did not find this unusual, as corneal flash burns often cleared within hours. (UFO Book, p.359) After returning to his office in Warren, Brekke called the Center for UFO Studies in Evanston, Illinois. He described Johnson's case to Allan Hendry, who agreed to immediately fly to Marshall County and investigate. Hendry called several local airports and air force bases to determine if they had picked up any "unusual" air traffic on radar; none had. (UFO Book, p.359) Hendry found that skid marks at the site of Johnson's "collision" revealed that his patrol car had skidded for 855 feet before the brakes locked up, and that it had continued to slide for another 99 feet. Sheriff Brekke performed an experiment which revealed that Johnson had been going approximately 48 MPH when his car was hit. (UFO Book, p.359)
After interviewing numerous people in the Warren area who knew Johnson and spoke highly of his character, Hendry concluded that Johnson had not hoaxed the event. He also concluded that an airplane could not have caused the damage to Johnson's car. Hendry had engineers from the Ford Motor Company and Honeywell fly to Warren to examine the car. Meridan French, the engineer from Ford, noted this about the windshield damage:
Even after several days of reflection on the crack patterns and apparent sequence of fractures, I still have no explanation for what seem to be inward and outward forces acting almost simultaneously. I can only [conclude]... that all cracks were from mechanical forces of unknown origin.
Hoax Theory and Rebuttal
The Johnson UFO incident received national publicity, and ranks as one of the best-publicized UFO events of the 1970s. Several of Johnson's friends in Marshall County urged him to take a polygraph test to prove he was telling the truth; they also urged him to undergo hypnosis to see if he could recall the incident more clearly. Johnson refused both requests; according to Jerome Clark he felt that undergoing hypnosis or a lie-detector test would only satisfy people's "morbid curiosity". (UFO Book, p.361) Johnson appeared on television only once, with Hendry on ABC-TV's Good Morning America program.
In his 1983 book UFOs: The Public Deceived, UFO skeptic Philip Klass argued that the entire event was a hoax, and that Johnson had deliberately damaged his own patrol car. Among the pieces of evidence Klass found suspicious were Johnson's refusal to take a lie-detector test, the fact that the Honeywell engineer had found that dead insect matter still covered the two damaged antennas even after the supposed "impact", and that any ultraviolet light which could have burned Johnson's eyes would have been blocked by the windshield's vinyl layer and Johnson's sunglasses. (UFOs: The Public Deceived, pg. 235) In September 1980 Klass debated the case with Allan Hendry at a "UFO Symposium" held at the Smithsonian Institution. According to Klass, he had uncovered eyewitness testimony that "Deputy Val Johnson...likes to play practical jokes, especially late in the evening when he gets a little bored, as I learned...by talking with some of the people who have worked with him and know him very well." (UFO Book, p.362) Hendry sarcastically replied: "I think that the sheriff and the six associates of Val Johnson were lying when they assured me of the integrity of their coworker. I think that Val Johnson is such a practical joker that he deliberately injured his eyes - as judged by two doctors - and he deliberately entered a phony state of shock for the ambulance driver who removed him from the scene of the accident." (Phil Klass vs. the UFO Promoters, Jerome Clark) According to Clark, Klass privately told Hendry after their debate that "everyone he interviewed in the course of his inquiry into the case spoke highly of Val Johnson." (Phil Klass, Clark) In his 1983 book, Klass revealed that his eyewitness testimony consisted of a coworker who told him that Johnson "did like to pull tricks on a guy once in a while... like maybe hide your coffee cup on you." The coworker also added that "I don't know if you'd call him [Johnson] a practical joker...as far as we know, he's never told us any untruths." (UFO Book, p.362)
Anonymous Reporter Message About the Case
I was a freelance newspaper reporter at the time, and for a lot of personal reasons never disclosed a set of pictures I took of the squad car within 24 hours of the incident.
For almost 30 years they have never been published, although I did submit them once to a major photo agency in New York.
Sometime this winter I hope to release an ebook that will contain all the images of the squad car that came out of my trip to Marshall county. I have a collection of newspaper articles published at that time, and several interesting observations that have never been discussed.
But I can tell you that the vehicle was subjected to some scientific laboratory investigations and I believe they ruled out any radiation effects etc.
In the course of my life there have been a number of experiences that I draw upon to make my own ideas about the incident. One thing is quite likely - it was a UFO, however it probably was not alien.
That said, I will also state that in my mind there is no doubt that officer Val Johnson experienced what he has claimed to be true.
I should have come forward a long time ago, but as I said there were personal things going on in my life.
Comment by Phantom Reporter — January 13, 2008 @ 10:57 pm
Newspaper Articles Regarding This Case
Mike Conley's Tales of the Weird: Lawman has a close encounter (The McDowel News, 5-1-2008)
By MIKE CONLEY - nconley@mcdowellnews.com
Early one morning, a deputy sheriff in Minnesota found himself blinded by the light of a UFO. In the dark early hours of Aug. 27, 1979, Deputy Sheriff Val Johnson was driving his patrol car on a rural highway in Marshall County, Minn. not far from the North Dakota border. At 1:40 a.m., Johnson spotted a bright light along a group of trees some distance from his car. At first, he thought it might be a downed plane so he turned his car in that direction to check it out.
Johnson noticed the weird light was not illuminating the surrounding area. Suddenly, the light started to move towards him and almost instantly covered an estimated mile and a half before resting above his car.
"I heard glass breaking and saw the inside of the car light up real bright with white light ... after the light hit my vehicle, I don't remember a thing," he later stated.
For some unknown reason, Johnson lost consciousness. When he awoke, his head was resting on the steering wheel. His patrol car had somehow skidded across the rural highway's southbound lane and now faced eastward. He also had vision problems, according to a Web site about the incident.
At this point, Johnson radioed the Marshall County Sheriff's Department in Warren, Minn. for help. It was 2:19 a.m. He told the dispatcher "Something just hit my car. I don't know how to explain it...I heard glass breaking and my brakes lock up. I don't know what the hell happened." A fellow deputy sheriff, Greg Winskowski, soon arrived on the scene. He noticed that Johnson had a red bump on his forehead, and concluded that he had hit his head on the steering wheel and been knocked out. He called for an ambulance to take Johnson to the hospital.
At the hospital in Warren, Minn., a doctor tried to examine Johnson's eyes, but found that shining a light onto them caused Johnson extreme pain. The doctor compared Johnson's eye injury to "mild welder's burns," and gave him some salve and bandages. Johnson then gave a statement at the Sheriff's Office and was taken home.
The next morning, Sheriff Dennis Brekke himself took Johnson's patrol car to the garage to have it checked out. Mechanics at the garage found that the car was damaged in some strange ways. For example, the hood had a circular dent about a half-inch in diameter. There was a crack in the windshield which ran from the top to the bottom. The crack had four impact points which may have been caused by small objects. The car's dashboard clock, set correctly at 7 p.m. when Johnson reported for duty, was now 14 minutes late. In addition, Johnson's wristwatch was also 14 minutes late. Other investigators found more weird damage to the car that couldn't be easily explained, according to the Web site.
After taking Johnson's patrol car to the police garage, Sheriff Brekke drove Johnson to the nearby city of Grand Forks, N.D. for a more thorough eye exam. The physician there found that Johnson's eyes had cleared up and his vision was fine. Brekke later called the Center for UFO Studies in Evanston, Ill. He described Johnson's encounter to Allan Hendry, who agreed to immediately fly to Marshall County and check it out.
When he arrived, Hendry found that skid marks at the site of the encounter revealed his patrol car had skidded for 855 feet before the brakes locked up and it had continued to slide for another 99 feet. After interviewing numerous people in Warren, Minn. who knew Johnson, Hendry concluded he had not hoaxed the event. He also determined that an airplane could not have caused the damage to the patrol car.
The Val Johnson UFO incident received national publicity and became one of the best-publicized UFO reports of the 1970s. Johnson even appeared with Hendry on ABC's "Good Morning America" program.
Several of Johnson's friends urged him to take a lie detector test to prove he was telling the truth. They also urged him to undergo hypnosis to see if he could better remember the incident. Johnson refused both requests saying he felt that undergoing hypnosis or a lie-detector test would only satisfy people's "morbid curiosity," according to the Web site.
So we may never know just what caused him to temporarily lose his eyesight or what happened during that missing time.
Contact Mike Conley at 652-3313, ext. 3422 or e-mail nconley@mcdowellnews.com.
Discuss this Case
Sources
- The UFO Book: Encyclopedia of the Extraterrestrial, Jerome Clark, author. Visible Ink Press, 1998. ppgs. 356-363
- UFOs: The Public Deceived, Philip Klass, author. Prometheus Books, 1983. ppgs. 223-227
- A 1981 article from Fate magazine which discusses the Klass vs. Hendry debate
Gallery
 Marshall County Minnesota Sheriff report (page 1) |
 Marshall County Minnesota Sheriff report (page 2) |
