UFOS OVER TOPANGA CANYON
UFOS OVER TOPANGA CANYON
By Preston Dennett
For more than 50 years, strange activity has been going on in the sky
over Topanga Canyon. But the night of June 14, 1992 marked the
beginning of a UFO wave of gigantic proportions. On that evening,
more than 17 different witnesses observed numerous strange craft flying
through the canyon. The activity would continue for more than two
years and involve the entire range of UFO phenomenon including
sightings, landings, UFO car chases, face-to-face encounters missing
time abductions, government cover-up and more. Today, there are more
than one hundred witnesses to the activity.
UFOs Over Topanga Canyon tells the story of the firsthand
investigation into this remarkable wave of UFO activity. Read about:
--the ten signs of a UFO hot-spot and how Topanga fulfills every one.
--anomalous lights that dart and hover
--metallic craft sending down powerful beams of light
--UFOs that chase cars and helicopters
--several cases of missing time abductions or face to face contact
--a pregnant couple who experienced repeated close-up encounters
--landing trace cases
--encounters from the nearby cities of Malibu and Santa Monica
--ocean-going UFOs
--UFO healing cases
--strange creatures
--cases involving government cover-ups
--activity stretching from the 1940s to the present day
--sightings by the lead investigator
--the reasons why Topanga Canyon is so active
And much more. During his years-long investigation, Dennett was
referred cases by the local police. Networking with other investigators,
he has uncovered and thoroughly investigated one of the world’s most
active UFO hotspots. UFOs Over Topanga Canyon contains 300 pages,
including a map showing the location of UFO encounters, a witness
sketch, footnotes, index, bibliography and an appendix listing all the
encounters included in the book.
UFOS OVER TOPANGA CANYON
By Preston Dennett
CONTENTS
Authors note….vi
Introduction….vii
1. The First Encounters….1
2. June 14, 1992: The Wave Begins….9
3. June 14, 1992: Confirmation….27
4. The Wave Continues….45
5. Contact!….51
6. They Return….69
7. Missing Time on Grandview Drive….87
8. Mysterious Lights at Night….95
9. A Bedroom Visitation….103
10. When You Wish Upon a UFO….113
11. A Helicopter UFO Chase….123
12. “Encounters” Visits Topanga….135
13. Sightings in Santa Monica….141
14. The Malibu Sightings….153
15. The Northridge Quake Encounters….183
16. More Topanga Encounters….199
17. Anomalous Lights and Strange Creatures….217
18. Anatomy of a Cover-up….223
19. Why Topanga Canyon….247
Epilogue….255
Appendix….263
Notes….289
Suggested Reading….293
Index….295
UFOS OVER TOPANGA CANYON
Excerpt
by Preston Dennett
Anyone who has lived in Topanga for any knows that it is a strange and
magical place. I learned this firsthand in 1987 when several Topanga
residents began telling me of bizarre experiences with UFOs. Two years
later, I sent an article detailing their stories to the Messenger. The
article was published in the January 1989 edition, and was the first UFO
article ever printed by the Messenger.
However, it was by no means the last. In July of 1992, Colin
Penno (then editor of the Messenger) published the article, “UFOs Over
Topanga -- The Sixth Encounter: They Came Once More.” The article
described an incredible event which occurred on the night of June 14,
1992. On that night, four separate witnesses called the local Lost
Hills/Malibu Sheriff’s Station reporting UFOs over Topanga. One couple
said their car was chased by three objects as they drove through the
canyon. Another said he was tailgated from above by a brightly lit
object which cast beams down on his car. Another couple reported
that they too were followed by a light which hovered over their car and
lifted it in the air. The final call came from a couple who was woken up
by a bright object hovering over their home near the boulevard.
Calls also came into the office of the Messenger -- one reporting
an odd star-like object which darted across the sky, and another
reporting blinding beams of light outside the witness’s home.
Colin Penno put the accounts together in an article. Shortly after
publication, the article sent shockwaves through Topanga and beyond.
Several letters were sent to the Messenger, some of which were
published. More calls came in, both to the Police and the Messenger,
reporting more UFOs. The article was quoted in both the Daily News
and the LA times, and eventually found its way into a mainstream book
in England, where the event was listed as one of the most significant
UFO encounters of that year.
When more and more calls started to flood the office of the
Messenger, Colin recalled my earlier article and referred the calls to
me. He said, “You’re a UFO investigator. See if you can find out what
happened on that night.”
I agreed, and so began the single most complicated case I have
yet investigated. I not only found additional witnesses to events of
June 14, 1992, but I interviewed many other Topanga residents who
had seen strange activity in the days and weeks following June 14. I
networked with the police station, and they began referring callers to
me.
Before long, I had interviewed well over a hundred Topanga
residents and uncovered dozens of encounters of all types. Topanga, it
seemed, was in the middle of a UFO wave of activity. I got calls from
longtime residents throughout the Canyon, from the Top’ O’Topanga
trailer park, to the top of Fernwood, down Old Canyon Road, up
Entrada and everywhere in-between.
The stories shared with me by Topangans were truly incredible,
such as:
--the Entrada family who experienced a metallic craft landing outside
their home for three days in row, on several different occasions.
--the Fernwood family who encountered three disks on their way to the
local market, and experienced a period of missing time.
--the Entrada lady who experienced a bedroom visitation by a short
entity which temporarily paralyzed the witness, probed her body,
clipped off a lock of her hair, and left as mysteriously as it had arrived.
--the Fernwood teacher who was woken up by helicopters hovering
over the state park, when he saw a shiny metallic disk scooting down
the canyon, easily evading the helicopters.
--the couple who was chased down the boulevard by bright glowing
objects that moved silently and darted at right angles. (I have at least
five cases of UFOs chasing cars down the boulevard.)
--the man who saw a fiery red globe of light land next to the boulevard
near the video store.
These are only a few of the nearly one hundred cases I have
uncovered in Topanga Canyon. It wasn’t long before news of my
investigations spread and, the next thing I knew, I was leading groups of
people into the canyon for the purpose of seeing UFOs. Amazingly, we
were successful more than once. On one occasion, the television
program ENCOUNTERS filmed a segment in Topanga and actually
caught an anomalous light on film! The local KTLA news also did a
segment and UNSOLVED MYSTERIES expressed strong interest.
In May 1995, the Messenger published my follow-up article,
“UFOs Over Topanga -- the 1994 sightings” which only touched the tip
of the iceberg in terms of the sheer number of sightings. However, it
was not the last UFO article printed in the Messenger. In 1998,
residents along Callon called the Messenger’s office and reported their
sightings of strange lights. More details appeared in the editorial
article, “UFOs Anyone?” which was published in the October 97 issue.
Today, all the Topanga accounts have been collected and
published in, UFOS OVER TOPANGA CANYON, by Llewellyn publishers.
It tells the story of the 1992 UFO wave which actually lasted for more
than two years. I also discovered that Topanga Canyon has a history of
UFO encounters stretching back to the 1940s! I found activity strong in
Malibu and Santa Monica, and to this day, I still get calls from residents
who are seeing UFOs.
All of this and more is covered in the book.
“THE WAVE”
Excerpted from UFOs Over Topanga Canyon
By Preston Dennett
One of the most intense UFO waves in California history began on June
14, 1992 and continued at a feverish pace for more than two years. The
location was Topanga Canyon, a rural community of about 8000
residents outside of Los Angeles. On that evening, numerous residents
called the local police station to report UFOs.
The first police report came from a gentleman and his girlfriend who
were driving through the canyon around midnight. The man told the
police an incredible story. “We are very shaken up and somewhat
disoriented…we are almost ashamed to tell you what we saw. You’ll
think I’m crazy, but I don’t know who to tell.”
The caller assured the officer that he didn’t drink or take drugs. “Officer,
we were driving through the canyon, where the canyon gets deep, and
we noticed a bright light in the sky. And we had a very uneasy feeling
because it was moving and we both felt it was following us. All of a
sudden, on top of us was this extremely bright object. We could hear it
wasn’t a helicopter – it had a high-pitched sound. And we lost control of
the car and it lifted us up into the sky. It lifted us up off the ground.
Now, I’m telling you, I’ve never been more frightened in my life.”
By now the caller was near tears, and the deputy did his best to reassure
the frightened witness. The caller concluded his report, “We were put
down. We lost our memory for I don’t know how long, maybe a couple
of minutes. And it wasn’t there anymore. I don’t believe in these things.
I’m telling you, I’m a normal human being. I have a job, a good job. My
girlfriend has a good job – she’s a nurse. We are very disoriented. We
got home by the grace of God. My girlfriend was near hysterical. I don’t
know what to do….we are very nauseous and we feel very weak and
disoriented.”
The officer recommended seeking medical help and gently terminated
the call.
A few minutes later, the second call came in. The caller gave his name
and asked, “Did anyone call in and report anything strange happening in
Topanga?”
The officer on duty denied any unusual activity and asked what the
caller saw. The caller replied, “My girlfriend and I saw three very
strange – God, who does one report UFOs to?…We saw three UFOs –
disks, flying disks – in the canyon. They were saucers. And they were
following us above our car. And we got out and we saw them. We
watched them. And within three seconds, like a bat out of hell, they just
went whoosh! And they were gone…They didn’t do anything to us…we
thought there was a possibility they were helicopters except they didn’t
make any noise.”
The officer asked a few questions and then recommended that the caller
contact the Air Force if he wished to pursue the matter.
Shortly later, a third call came in. A man who identified himself as a
college professor said, “I live up in the canyon, and my wife and I were
woken up – there was a very, very bright light coming above our home,
into the windows. And we went out to look at it. We could see an
extremely bright light hovering above us, but we couldn’t hear
anything….It was awfully strange….the damn thing didn’t make any
noise….To tell you the truth, it was the strangest think I’ve ever seen.
The only sort of noise we did hear was sort of a high-pitched hum.”
The officer asked for more details. The caller then said, “It really quite
scared us. The light was very intense. And in fact, it lit up the whole
house inside….my wife is a bit shaken up right now.”
The officer mentioned UFOs, but the caller replied that he “didn’t
believe in such things.” The officer then offered another possibility,
such as illegal activities by humans. The caller replied, “If someone is
doing something illegal, they have a hell of a lot of wattage...damnedest
thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” he concluded and hung up.
The final call came from a man who was driving southbound through the
canyon on the night in question. Like all the callers, he inquired about
aircraft activity and said, “About an hour ago, I was going down
Topanga Canyon, and I think they were helicopters, because they were
shining damn bright lights on me, but they kind of chased me down the
road a bit…I think they were helicopters, but I sure couldn’t hear any
sound….it sure put out a powerful bright light, very bright. It was kind
of like tailgating me from above. I couldn’t see it. I couldn’t see
anything actually because it was so damn bright…it sure was strange.”
While the police station was fielding the above calls, the office of the
local Topanga newspaper, Messenger, also received reports. One call
came from Topanga resident, Dr. Murray Clarke, who observed an
intensely bright star-like object zoom over his home sometime after
midnight. “I looked through my view window…it was traveling southto-
north very fast in a horizontal path, an intense yellow-white light. As
it sped away from me, about over the last ridge, it just vanished.”
Another call came from a lady who lives along the boulevard. “I saw a
brilliant ray of light outside through my window…I saw it and I’ll never
forget it. I’m telling you this now, but, well, I’m a professional person
and I can’t afford the risk of ridicule.”
The caller insisted that the beam was not a car headlight. “I’ve lived here
for years and because of the hills around, I can tell you no headlights can
pass around by the house.”
Nor did the caller believe that the beams were from helicopters. “I’ve
seen those lights over and over…this light was so focused, so intense,
like nothing I’ve ever seen.” The witness apparently viewed the actual
beams of light that were tailgating or lifting cars and being emitted over
homes.
Also on that evening around midnight, a middle-aged couple, Phillip and
Mandy, (pseudonyms) was driving through the canyon after a dinner
party. Says Mandy, “We were coming home. And just a few minutes
after we pulled onto Topanga Canyon, all of a sudden, there were
several of them. I can’t remember the numbers now, but it was like five.
Five or six huge bright lights moving at all different angles.”
At first Mandy assumed the objects were helicopters tracking illegal
activity. But she and her husband soon realized the objects moved at
right angles, made no noise and were saucer-shaped. Says Mandy, “We
were followed – definitely followed, halfway down the mountain, the
whole drive down, until we got to the very bottom. I thought they were
helicopters except they were totally silent. These brilliant lights were
just all over us as we were driving down the mountain. I thought that
there was a drug bust or something like that. The lights were incredibly
bright, pure white lights. But they made absolutely no sound.”
Mandy’s husband saw the lights but paid little attention until they
approached closely. Says Phillip, “I saw three craft coming over the hill.
There appeared to be some lights on them and I jokingly turned to
Mandy and said, ‘Oh, look, Mandy! There are flying saucers!’ And she
thought I was kidding. You know, I wasn’t really sure, but it did look
like it. And they appeared to be silently floating, just moving over the
hills…My first impression was that they were flying saucers in that they
appeared to be easily floating and moving over the hills, reminiscent
somewhat of what we see in the movies….They were definable. They
were craft. As a matter of fact, there seemed to be lighting on the craft,
which is why, after I made my joke and I wasn’t really sure, I just
discarded it because I didn’t really expect to see a flying saucer that
close in such a highly inhabited area. It just didn’t make any sense. So I
said, ‘Oh, it must be some kind of craft.’ But it did appear to have some
kind of lights on it…there appeared to be a dark body behind the lights.
It wasn’t just like a little spot of light in the sky. It was odd. It was
clearly odd. It was not a craft I could readily identify. I couldn’t.”
With so many people reporting objects at the same time, it is clear that
there were multiple UFOs. But if so many people saw the objects,
exactly how many were there? Where were they coming from? Where
were they going?
The answers to these questions was provided by another couple, Daniel
and Katherine, who reside on one of the highest points of Topanga with
a panoramic view of the entire canyon. At around 8:30 p.m. that
evening, they sat down to watch a video. Almost immediately, their
attention was drawn outside by flashes of light. Katherine assumed it
was lightning even though there were no clouds in the sky. A few
minutes later, she looked out the window and saw a strange glowing bar
of light. Again, she sort of shrugged off the experience. “It looked like a
perfectly straight line of light came out horizontally, which I thought
was very strange. I said, ‘Well, that’s not lightning, you know.’ But I
sort of dismissed it. I just thought, ‘Oh, that’s weird.’”
A few minutes later, their dog began to bark. Looking outside, they both
observed a “white oval shape, like a white glow, just sitting there”
hovering over the nearby ridge. The object then disappeared and
reappeared above and to the right of the original location. Seconds later,
another object appeared. “It disappeared and appeared again,” explained
Daniel. “It was here, and then it disappeared, went poof! It was there
instantaneously. And then it sat there for awhile. And then another one
appeared right where that one had disappeared.”
The couple could now see two objects hovering. Almost instantly, the
first object took off and headed straight for them. Says Katherine, “It
was as if this one moved up there to where the horizontal bar was that I
had seen earlier, and another oval glow came to this location. Then the
one that had moved up there would suddenly flash over our heads,
lighting up the whole sky in almost a triangle shape.”
The couple watched in disbelief as one object after another rose from
behind the ridge and headed in various directions throughout the canyon.
Says Daniel, “There was a number of them. This went on for quite
awhile in kind of a rhythmic way. They would go directly overhead,
right overhead….Twice, one started out, it would stop, change at a
ninety-degree angle, zoom, zoom, shew! And it moved so fast…they
would accelerate really fast. And every now and then, just a few times
though, they’d start off in one direction, and then suddenly go make a
right angle turn and go in the other way.”
After fifteen minutes, the activity stopped. Daniel and Katherine had
counted about twenty objects. They returned inside and tried to relax.
Fifteen minutes later, another series of bright flashes brought them
outside. To their shock, the same thing was happening again. Quickly,
one after another, more than ten objects appeared and zipped overhead.
Says Katherine, “Sometimes one would wait there, like it would start to
leave and then it would wait there, and you’d think, ‘Well, what’s it
waiting for?’ And then it would go shoot! And then other one, shoot!
And then shoot! And then the other one would wait.”
Finally, the activity stopped and they returned inside. Shortly later,
however, more UFOs appeared. As Daniel says, “Clusters, four or five,
sometimes ten, a little more, twenty I guess, in clusters. Then it would
stop. Then they would suddenly go, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!”
The UFO activity continued on and off for more than two hours. After
about the fourth wave, Katherine began to count the objects. “There
were so many of them. We were so caught up in the excitement of it. We
were so amazed. We kept thinking it would end. I was trying to keep
count, though I’m sure it wasn’t an exact count. It was like, ‘Okay, that
was about forty. Okay, that was about forty.’ And I said that at least five
times. So my estimation of how many lights, or how many flashes of
these oval things we saw, was about two hundred….Now that was very
frightening to me that there was so many…Daniel doesn’t like me to say
that there were two hundred of them because he says that’s too wild.
Well, that’s exactly why it was so upsetting to me. I don’t know if it
makes it any more wild seeing a hundred as opposed to two hundred, but
it was a lot.”
Says Daniel, “She was really frightened by how many. She said, ‘Where
are they all coming from? Where are they going?’ It was frightening to
her.”
After about two hours, the objects left for good. By then, the couple was
so upset, they went straight to bed and stopped looking outside. Says
Katherine, “I didn’t want to see it anymore…It was not good news. I
didn’t sleep that night and I was upset for weeks after that. I always
thought that if I saw an alien spaceship, that would be exciting and I
would be happy. And if there were aliens from another planet, that I
would want to meet them or experience them. But I have to say, that was
not my actual reaction. Maybe if it had been three or four, I would have
thought, ‘Oh, that’s fascinating.’ But because there was so many, I was
very intimidated.”
Daniel agreed. “If one of those stopped, I would hate that. The feeling is,
what can you do. They’ll do whatever they’re going to do.”
So closes the evening of June 14, 1992. However, that day marked the
beginning of a wave of activity which continued strong for two years.
New Topanga Witness Comes out of the UFO Closet
by Preston Dennett
In case thirteen witnesses isn’t amazing enough, I have recently
located yet another witness to the events of June 14, 1992. His report
adds another piece of the puzzle to the mystery of that night.
Bill Boshears is currently a resident of Ohio. He is the host of the
hugely popular radio program Sci-Zone. The program is syndicated
across the United States and remains one of the largest weekend radio
talk shows in the nation. So when I found out that Mr. Boshears was
also a Topanga UFO witness, I couldn’t have been more delighted. It’s
not often that you find a credible UFO witness to a well-established
case who is willing to have their names published.
Boshears, himself, was also surprised to find out that he wasn’t
the only witness to the amazing events of the night in question.
On June 14, 1992, Bill Boshears had attended a birthday party in
the San Fernando Valley. Around nine or ten o’clock in the evening, he
and two passengers headed into Topanga Canyon. It was to be a night
they would not soon forget.
No sooner had they pulled onto the straight-a-way south of Top
O’Topanga, when Boshears saw a large oval object streak quickly across
the sky, followed immediately by another. “All of a sudden, I saw a
streak of light,” Boshears explained. “Then I saw another streak of light
to the north. It went up over the mountains, very high up. And at first I
thought it was a rocket launch. It was very bright, and it literally lit up
the sky to the point that it might be a firestorm or something. So I
stopped, got out, and it got brighter. By that, I mean, you could literally
see the shadow of the car on the ground as this thing played and
moved over the canyon...it was almost like daylight.”
As Boshears stood next to his car, he tried to figure out what he
was seeing. What looked like a gigantic straight bar of light hovering at
about three-thousand feet was ejecting smaller glowing football shaped
objects which began to dart back and forth across the sky. “I
was not the only person to see this. There were several people that
saw it. And I thought it might have been a dirigible because earlier I
had seen a blimp, a Fuji blimp that was moving around over the ocean.
Then I thought, ‘Oh, maybe Hollywood is making a movie.’ You have to
think that to maintain stability. And for the next twenty minutes, I was
looking straight up to the point that my neck started aching. And I
literally laid down on the hood of the car and watched it for twenty
minutes.”
Boshears and his two passengers watched as the long glowing
object ejected smaller oval-shaped craft which maneuvered across the
Topanga skyline. Says Boshears, “First [there was] the light, then the
objects and the lights going in and out of the object and around it.
Silvery dish-shaped objects, lights changing colors, and it began to play
in that area. And I say play, not that I could orchestrate it -- the thing
that I can relate it to most often -- have you ever been to a fireworks
display, and you suddenly look around and you notice that you’re
looking up in the air, and when you look back down, the light from the
fireworks has light all over the ground? You can see everything as
bright as if it were day. I lay there for twenty minutes. And the people
that were with me -- we just couldn’t talk. I mean, every time you’d go,
‘Did you see that?’ you didn’t want to look to say anything. Everyone
was going, ‘Look at that! Here they come again!’ You know what it put
me in mind of? Close Encounters. Do you remember a scene in the
movie when they’re all on the hillside? And I thought, ‘How ironic!’
because I am watching this, and seeing this.”
Boshears and his friends were awe-struck. The large glowing
object just hung in place while as many as six or seven objects danced
about in the sky. “The lights came out of it, back and forth and then
back to it, and then would hover in the distance and back...they’d move
out, hover, and back. But in coming out, [they] couldn’t make their
mind up, and would go either left or right and then decide to go over
here and stay, and travel toward Santa Monica and back.”
Boshears tried in vain to get his other passengers to exit the car,
but they remained inside. They all talked about what was happening
throughout the entire ordeal. Says Boshears, “I stopped, got out of the
car and stood there and looked up. I said, ‘Look at this! Get out and
look at this!’...comments like ‘Oh, do you see that?’ ‘Look at that!’
Constantly commenting back and forth. They were staying in the car.
They didn’t want to see it.”
Interestingly, they never used the word “UFO” during the entire
experience. They said, “Look at that! Look at that!” “Do you see
that?” “Yeah.” “What is that?” “What does that look like to you?”
After fifteen minutes, the display ended and Boshears’ passengers
said, “Let’s go. Let’s get out of here. Let’s go.”
Strangely, they didn’t even discuss the incident on the way home.
As Boshears says, “I didn’t say anything about it to anyone else...there
was no comment. I think we were more startled, and then later on,
saying, ‘Did we really see that?’...It’s easy to deny. You know what? It
doesn’t stop it from happening. I didn’t talk about it. The next day, all
my friends, we were talking. They said, ‘Bill, what time did you get
home last night?’ I said, ‘Well, I got home about, you know...’ I sort of
shuffled and passed it off. But the friends who were with me happened
to be at that same house -- we’re sitting on the patio talking. And we
all looked at one another like, ‘Are you going to tell them, or am I going
to tell them?’ And we just blew it off, let it go.”
For those who have already read UFOs Over Topanga Canyon,
much should sound familiar. However, Mr. Boshears’ testimony adds
yet another piece of the puzzle to the strange mystery that surrounds
the night of June 14, 1992, bringing the total number of witnesses to an
astounding sixteen. As can be seen, Boshear’s testimony corroborates
with the other accounts that evening. For whatever reason, the UFO
activity did not stop that night, and continues to this day. The number
of Topanga UFO witnesses has risen to more than a hundred.
The number one question still remains, why Topanga?
UFOS OVER TOPANGA CANYON is published by Llewellyn Publications,
2000. It contains 300 pages, a map of the sightings, an analysis of the
cases and an index. It is available at Llewellyn Publications, PO Box
64383, St Paul, MN 55164-0383. Or call 1-800-THE-MOON. Or visit
website: www.llewelyn.com. Also available at online bookstores.
By Preston Dennett
For more than 50 years, strange activity has been going on in the sky
over Topanga Canyon. But the night of June 14, 1992 marked the
beginning of a UFO wave of gigantic proportions. On that evening,
more than 17 different witnesses observed numerous strange craft flying
through the canyon. The activity would continue for more than two
years and involve the entire range of UFO phenomenon including
sightings, landings, UFO car chases, face-to-face encounters missing
time abductions, government cover-up and more. Today, there are more
than one hundred witnesses to the activity.
UFOs Over Topanga Canyon tells the story of the firsthand
investigation into this remarkable wave of UFO activity. Read about:
--the ten signs of a UFO hot-spot and how Topanga fulfills every one.
--anomalous lights that dart and hover
--metallic craft sending down powerful beams of light
--UFOs that chase cars and helicopters
--several cases of missing time abductions or face to face contact
--a pregnant couple who experienced repeated close-up encounters
--landing trace cases
--encounters from the nearby cities of Malibu and Santa Monica
--ocean-going UFOs
--UFO healing cases
--strange creatures
--cases involving government cover-ups
--activity stretching from the 1940s to the present day
--sightings by the lead investigator
--the reasons why Topanga Canyon is so active
And much more. During his years-long investigation, Dennett was
referred cases by the local police. Networking with other investigators,
he has uncovered and thoroughly investigated one of the world’s most
active UFO hotspots. UFOs Over Topanga Canyon contains 300 pages,
including a map showing the location of UFO encounters, a witness
sketch, footnotes, index, bibliography and an appendix listing all the
encounters included in the book.
UFOS OVER TOPANGA CANYON
By Preston Dennett
CONTENTS
Authors note….vi
Introduction….vii
1. The First Encounters….1
2. June 14, 1992: The Wave Begins….9
3. June 14, 1992: Confirmation….27
4. The Wave Continues….45
5. Contact!….51
6. They Return….69
7. Missing Time on Grandview Drive….87
8. Mysterious Lights at Night….95
9. A Bedroom Visitation….103
10. When You Wish Upon a UFO….113
11. A Helicopter UFO Chase….123
12. “Encounters” Visits Topanga….135
13. Sightings in Santa Monica….141
14. The Malibu Sightings….153
15. The Northridge Quake Encounters….183
16. More Topanga Encounters….199
17. Anomalous Lights and Strange Creatures….217
18. Anatomy of a Cover-up….223
19. Why Topanga Canyon….247
Epilogue….255
Appendix….263
Notes….289
Suggested Reading….293
Index….295
UFOS OVER TOPANGA CANYON
Excerpt
by Preston Dennett
Anyone who has lived in Topanga for any knows that it is a strange and
magical place. I learned this firsthand in 1987 when several Topanga
residents began telling me of bizarre experiences with UFOs. Two years
later, I sent an article detailing their stories to the Messenger. The
article was published in the January 1989 edition, and was the first UFO
article ever printed by the Messenger.
However, it was by no means the last. In July of 1992, Colin
Penno (then editor of the Messenger) published the article, “UFOs Over
Topanga -- The Sixth Encounter: They Came Once More.” The article
described an incredible event which occurred on the night of June 14,
1992. On that night, four separate witnesses called the local Lost
Hills/Malibu Sheriff’s Station reporting UFOs over Topanga. One couple
said their car was chased by three objects as they drove through the
canyon. Another said he was tailgated from above by a brightly lit
object which cast beams down on his car. Another couple reported
that they too were followed by a light which hovered over their car and
lifted it in the air. The final call came from a couple who was woken up
by a bright object hovering over their home near the boulevard.
Calls also came into the office of the Messenger -- one reporting
an odd star-like object which darted across the sky, and another
reporting blinding beams of light outside the witness’s home.
Colin Penno put the accounts together in an article. Shortly after
publication, the article sent shockwaves through Topanga and beyond.
Several letters were sent to the Messenger, some of which were
published. More calls came in, both to the Police and the Messenger,
reporting more UFOs. The article was quoted in both the Daily News
and the LA times, and eventually found its way into a mainstream book
in England, where the event was listed as one of the most significant
UFO encounters of that year.
When more and more calls started to flood the office of the
Messenger, Colin recalled my earlier article and referred the calls to
me. He said, “You’re a UFO investigator. See if you can find out what
happened on that night.”
I agreed, and so began the single most complicated case I have
yet investigated. I not only found additional witnesses to events of
June 14, 1992, but I interviewed many other Topanga residents who
had seen strange activity in the days and weeks following June 14. I
networked with the police station, and they began referring callers to
me.
Before long, I had interviewed well over a hundred Topanga
residents and uncovered dozens of encounters of all types. Topanga, it
seemed, was in the middle of a UFO wave of activity. I got calls from
longtime residents throughout the Canyon, from the Top’ O’Topanga
trailer park, to the top of Fernwood, down Old Canyon Road, up
Entrada and everywhere in-between.
The stories shared with me by Topangans were truly incredible,
such as:
--the Entrada family who experienced a metallic craft landing outside
their home for three days in row, on several different occasions.
--the Fernwood family who encountered three disks on their way to the
local market, and experienced a period of missing time.
--the Entrada lady who experienced a bedroom visitation by a short
entity which temporarily paralyzed the witness, probed her body,
clipped off a lock of her hair, and left as mysteriously as it had arrived.
--the Fernwood teacher who was woken up by helicopters hovering
over the state park, when he saw a shiny metallic disk scooting down
the canyon, easily evading the helicopters.
--the couple who was chased down the boulevard by bright glowing
objects that moved silently and darted at right angles. (I have at least
five cases of UFOs chasing cars down the boulevard.)
--the man who saw a fiery red globe of light land next to the boulevard
near the video store.
These are only a few of the nearly one hundred cases I have
uncovered in Topanga Canyon. It wasn’t long before news of my
investigations spread and, the next thing I knew, I was leading groups of
people into the canyon for the purpose of seeing UFOs. Amazingly, we
were successful more than once. On one occasion, the television
program ENCOUNTERS filmed a segment in Topanga and actually
caught an anomalous light on film! The local KTLA news also did a
segment and UNSOLVED MYSTERIES expressed strong interest.
In May 1995, the Messenger published my follow-up article,
“UFOs Over Topanga -- the 1994 sightings” which only touched the tip
of the iceberg in terms of the sheer number of sightings. However, it
was not the last UFO article printed in the Messenger. In 1998,
residents along Callon called the Messenger’s office and reported their
sightings of strange lights. More details appeared in the editorial
article, “UFOs Anyone?” which was published in the October 97 issue.
Today, all the Topanga accounts have been collected and
published in, UFOS OVER TOPANGA CANYON, by Llewellyn publishers.
It tells the story of the 1992 UFO wave which actually lasted for more
than two years. I also discovered that Topanga Canyon has a history of
UFO encounters stretching back to the 1940s! I found activity strong in
Malibu and Santa Monica, and to this day, I still get calls from residents
who are seeing UFOs.
All of this and more is covered in the book.
“THE WAVE”
Excerpted from UFOs Over Topanga Canyon
By Preston Dennett
One of the most intense UFO waves in California history began on June
14, 1992 and continued at a feverish pace for more than two years. The
location was Topanga Canyon, a rural community of about 8000
residents outside of Los Angeles. On that evening, numerous residents
called the local police station to report UFOs.
The first police report came from a gentleman and his girlfriend who
were driving through the canyon around midnight. The man told the
police an incredible story. “We are very shaken up and somewhat
disoriented…we are almost ashamed to tell you what we saw. You’ll
think I’m crazy, but I don’t know who to tell.”
The caller assured the officer that he didn’t drink or take drugs. “Officer,
we were driving through the canyon, where the canyon gets deep, and
we noticed a bright light in the sky. And we had a very uneasy feeling
because it was moving and we both felt it was following us. All of a
sudden, on top of us was this extremely bright object. We could hear it
wasn’t a helicopter – it had a high-pitched sound. And we lost control of
the car and it lifted us up into the sky. It lifted us up off the ground.
Now, I’m telling you, I’ve never been more frightened in my life.”
By now the caller was near tears, and the deputy did his best to reassure
the frightened witness. The caller concluded his report, “We were put
down. We lost our memory for I don’t know how long, maybe a couple
of minutes. And it wasn’t there anymore. I don’t believe in these things.
I’m telling you, I’m a normal human being. I have a job, a good job. My
girlfriend has a good job – she’s a nurse. We are very disoriented. We
got home by the grace of God. My girlfriend was near hysterical. I don’t
know what to do….we are very nauseous and we feel very weak and
disoriented.”
The officer recommended seeking medical help and gently terminated
the call.
A few minutes later, the second call came in. The caller gave his name
and asked, “Did anyone call in and report anything strange happening in
Topanga?”
The officer on duty denied any unusual activity and asked what the
caller saw. The caller replied, “My girlfriend and I saw three very
strange – God, who does one report UFOs to?…We saw three UFOs –
disks, flying disks – in the canyon. They were saucers. And they were
following us above our car. And we got out and we saw them. We
watched them. And within three seconds, like a bat out of hell, they just
went whoosh! And they were gone…They didn’t do anything to us…we
thought there was a possibility they were helicopters except they didn’t
make any noise.”
The officer asked a few questions and then recommended that the caller
contact the Air Force if he wished to pursue the matter.
Shortly later, a third call came in. A man who identified himself as a
college professor said, “I live up in the canyon, and my wife and I were
woken up – there was a very, very bright light coming above our home,
into the windows. And we went out to look at it. We could see an
extremely bright light hovering above us, but we couldn’t hear
anything….It was awfully strange….the damn thing didn’t make any
noise….To tell you the truth, it was the strangest think I’ve ever seen.
The only sort of noise we did hear was sort of a high-pitched hum.”
The officer asked for more details. The caller then said, “It really quite
scared us. The light was very intense. And in fact, it lit up the whole
house inside….my wife is a bit shaken up right now.”
The officer mentioned UFOs, but the caller replied that he “didn’t
believe in such things.” The officer then offered another possibility,
such as illegal activities by humans. The caller replied, “If someone is
doing something illegal, they have a hell of a lot of wattage...damnedest
thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” he concluded and hung up.
The final call came from a man who was driving southbound through the
canyon on the night in question. Like all the callers, he inquired about
aircraft activity and said, “About an hour ago, I was going down
Topanga Canyon, and I think they were helicopters, because they were
shining damn bright lights on me, but they kind of chased me down the
road a bit…I think they were helicopters, but I sure couldn’t hear any
sound….it sure put out a powerful bright light, very bright. It was kind
of like tailgating me from above. I couldn’t see it. I couldn’t see
anything actually because it was so damn bright…it sure was strange.”
While the police station was fielding the above calls, the office of the
local Topanga newspaper, Messenger, also received reports. One call
came from Topanga resident, Dr. Murray Clarke, who observed an
intensely bright star-like object zoom over his home sometime after
midnight. “I looked through my view window…it was traveling southto-
north very fast in a horizontal path, an intense yellow-white light. As
it sped away from me, about over the last ridge, it just vanished.”
Another call came from a lady who lives along the boulevard. “I saw a
brilliant ray of light outside through my window…I saw it and I’ll never
forget it. I’m telling you this now, but, well, I’m a professional person
and I can’t afford the risk of ridicule.”
The caller insisted that the beam was not a car headlight. “I’ve lived here
for years and because of the hills around, I can tell you no headlights can
pass around by the house.”
Nor did the caller believe that the beams were from helicopters. “I’ve
seen those lights over and over…this light was so focused, so intense,
like nothing I’ve ever seen.” The witness apparently viewed the actual
beams of light that were tailgating or lifting cars and being emitted over
homes.
Also on that evening around midnight, a middle-aged couple, Phillip and
Mandy, (pseudonyms) was driving through the canyon after a dinner
party. Says Mandy, “We were coming home. And just a few minutes
after we pulled onto Topanga Canyon, all of a sudden, there were
several of them. I can’t remember the numbers now, but it was like five.
Five or six huge bright lights moving at all different angles.”
At first Mandy assumed the objects were helicopters tracking illegal
activity. But she and her husband soon realized the objects moved at
right angles, made no noise and were saucer-shaped. Says Mandy, “We
were followed – definitely followed, halfway down the mountain, the
whole drive down, until we got to the very bottom. I thought they were
helicopters except they were totally silent. These brilliant lights were
just all over us as we were driving down the mountain. I thought that
there was a drug bust or something like that. The lights were incredibly
bright, pure white lights. But they made absolutely no sound.”
Mandy’s husband saw the lights but paid little attention until they
approached closely. Says Phillip, “I saw three craft coming over the hill.
There appeared to be some lights on them and I jokingly turned to
Mandy and said, ‘Oh, look, Mandy! There are flying saucers!’ And she
thought I was kidding. You know, I wasn’t really sure, but it did look
like it. And they appeared to be silently floating, just moving over the
hills…My first impression was that they were flying saucers in that they
appeared to be easily floating and moving over the hills, reminiscent
somewhat of what we see in the movies….They were definable. They
were craft. As a matter of fact, there seemed to be lighting on the craft,
which is why, after I made my joke and I wasn’t really sure, I just
discarded it because I didn’t really expect to see a flying saucer that
close in such a highly inhabited area. It just didn’t make any sense. So I
said, ‘Oh, it must be some kind of craft.’ But it did appear to have some
kind of lights on it…there appeared to be a dark body behind the lights.
It wasn’t just like a little spot of light in the sky. It was odd. It was
clearly odd. It was not a craft I could readily identify. I couldn’t.”
With so many people reporting objects at the same time, it is clear that
there were multiple UFOs. But if so many people saw the objects,
exactly how many were there? Where were they coming from? Where
were they going?
The answers to these questions was provided by another couple, Daniel
and Katherine, who reside on one of the highest points of Topanga with
a panoramic view of the entire canyon. At around 8:30 p.m. that
evening, they sat down to watch a video. Almost immediately, their
attention was drawn outside by flashes of light. Katherine assumed it
was lightning even though there were no clouds in the sky. A few
minutes later, she looked out the window and saw a strange glowing bar
of light. Again, she sort of shrugged off the experience. “It looked like a
perfectly straight line of light came out horizontally, which I thought
was very strange. I said, ‘Well, that’s not lightning, you know.’ But I
sort of dismissed it. I just thought, ‘Oh, that’s weird.’”
A few minutes later, their dog began to bark. Looking outside, they both
observed a “white oval shape, like a white glow, just sitting there”
hovering over the nearby ridge. The object then disappeared and
reappeared above and to the right of the original location. Seconds later,
another object appeared. “It disappeared and appeared again,” explained
Daniel. “It was here, and then it disappeared, went poof! It was there
instantaneously. And then it sat there for awhile. And then another one
appeared right where that one had disappeared.”
The couple could now see two objects hovering. Almost instantly, the
first object took off and headed straight for them. Says Katherine, “It
was as if this one moved up there to where the horizontal bar was that I
had seen earlier, and another oval glow came to this location. Then the
one that had moved up there would suddenly flash over our heads,
lighting up the whole sky in almost a triangle shape.”
The couple watched in disbelief as one object after another rose from
behind the ridge and headed in various directions throughout the canyon.
Says Daniel, “There was a number of them. This went on for quite
awhile in kind of a rhythmic way. They would go directly overhead,
right overhead….Twice, one started out, it would stop, change at a
ninety-degree angle, zoom, zoom, shew! And it moved so fast…they
would accelerate really fast. And every now and then, just a few times
though, they’d start off in one direction, and then suddenly go make a
right angle turn and go in the other way.”
After fifteen minutes, the activity stopped. Daniel and Katherine had
counted about twenty objects. They returned inside and tried to relax.
Fifteen minutes later, another series of bright flashes brought them
outside. To their shock, the same thing was happening again. Quickly,
one after another, more than ten objects appeared and zipped overhead.
Says Katherine, “Sometimes one would wait there, like it would start to
leave and then it would wait there, and you’d think, ‘Well, what’s it
waiting for?’ And then it would go shoot! And then other one, shoot!
And then shoot! And then the other one would wait.”
Finally, the activity stopped and they returned inside. Shortly later,
however, more UFOs appeared. As Daniel says, “Clusters, four or five,
sometimes ten, a little more, twenty I guess, in clusters. Then it would
stop. Then they would suddenly go, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!”
The UFO activity continued on and off for more than two hours. After
about the fourth wave, Katherine began to count the objects. “There
were so many of them. We were so caught up in the excitement of it. We
were so amazed. We kept thinking it would end. I was trying to keep
count, though I’m sure it wasn’t an exact count. It was like, ‘Okay, that
was about forty. Okay, that was about forty.’ And I said that at least five
times. So my estimation of how many lights, or how many flashes of
these oval things we saw, was about two hundred….Now that was very
frightening to me that there was so many…Daniel doesn’t like me to say
that there were two hundred of them because he says that’s too wild.
Well, that’s exactly why it was so upsetting to me. I don’t know if it
makes it any more wild seeing a hundred as opposed to two hundred, but
it was a lot.”
Says Daniel, “She was really frightened by how many. She said, ‘Where
are they all coming from? Where are they going?’ It was frightening to
her.”
After about two hours, the objects left for good. By then, the couple was
so upset, they went straight to bed and stopped looking outside. Says
Katherine, “I didn’t want to see it anymore…It was not good news. I
didn’t sleep that night and I was upset for weeks after that. I always
thought that if I saw an alien spaceship, that would be exciting and I
would be happy. And if there were aliens from another planet, that I
would want to meet them or experience them. But I have to say, that was
not my actual reaction. Maybe if it had been three or four, I would have
thought, ‘Oh, that’s fascinating.’ But because there was so many, I was
very intimidated.”
Daniel agreed. “If one of those stopped, I would hate that. The feeling is,
what can you do. They’ll do whatever they’re going to do.”
So closes the evening of June 14, 1992. However, that day marked the
beginning of a wave of activity which continued strong for two years.
New Topanga Witness Comes out of the UFO Closet
by Preston Dennett
In case thirteen witnesses isn’t amazing enough, I have recently
located yet another witness to the events of June 14, 1992. His report
adds another piece of the puzzle to the mystery of that night.
Bill Boshears is currently a resident of Ohio. He is the host of the
hugely popular radio program Sci-Zone. The program is syndicated
across the United States and remains one of the largest weekend radio
talk shows in the nation. So when I found out that Mr. Boshears was
also a Topanga UFO witness, I couldn’t have been more delighted. It’s
not often that you find a credible UFO witness to a well-established
case who is willing to have their names published.
Boshears, himself, was also surprised to find out that he wasn’t
the only witness to the amazing events of the night in question.
On June 14, 1992, Bill Boshears had attended a birthday party in
the San Fernando Valley. Around nine or ten o’clock in the evening, he
and two passengers headed into Topanga Canyon. It was to be a night
they would not soon forget.
No sooner had they pulled onto the straight-a-way south of Top
O’Topanga, when Boshears saw a large oval object streak quickly across
the sky, followed immediately by another. “All of a sudden, I saw a
streak of light,” Boshears explained. “Then I saw another streak of light
to the north. It went up over the mountains, very high up. And at first I
thought it was a rocket launch. It was very bright, and it literally lit up
the sky to the point that it might be a firestorm or something. So I
stopped, got out, and it got brighter. By that, I mean, you could literally
see the shadow of the car on the ground as this thing played and
moved over the canyon...it was almost like daylight.”
As Boshears stood next to his car, he tried to figure out what he
was seeing. What looked like a gigantic straight bar of light hovering at
about three-thousand feet was ejecting smaller glowing football shaped
objects which began to dart back and forth across the sky. “I
was not the only person to see this. There were several people that
saw it. And I thought it might have been a dirigible because earlier I
had seen a blimp, a Fuji blimp that was moving around over the ocean.
Then I thought, ‘Oh, maybe Hollywood is making a movie.’ You have to
think that to maintain stability. And for the next twenty minutes, I was
looking straight up to the point that my neck started aching. And I
literally laid down on the hood of the car and watched it for twenty
minutes.”
Boshears and his two passengers watched as the long glowing
object ejected smaller oval-shaped craft which maneuvered across the
Topanga skyline. Says Boshears, “First [there was] the light, then the
objects and the lights going in and out of the object and around it.
Silvery dish-shaped objects, lights changing colors, and it began to play
in that area. And I say play, not that I could orchestrate it -- the thing
that I can relate it to most often -- have you ever been to a fireworks
display, and you suddenly look around and you notice that you’re
looking up in the air, and when you look back down, the light from the
fireworks has light all over the ground? You can see everything as
bright as if it were day. I lay there for twenty minutes. And the people
that were with me -- we just couldn’t talk. I mean, every time you’d go,
‘Did you see that?’ you didn’t want to look to say anything. Everyone
was going, ‘Look at that! Here they come again!’ You know what it put
me in mind of? Close Encounters. Do you remember a scene in the
movie when they’re all on the hillside? And I thought, ‘How ironic!’
because I am watching this, and seeing this.”
Boshears and his friends were awe-struck. The large glowing
object just hung in place while as many as six or seven objects danced
about in the sky. “The lights came out of it, back and forth and then
back to it, and then would hover in the distance and back...they’d move
out, hover, and back. But in coming out, [they] couldn’t make their
mind up, and would go either left or right and then decide to go over
here and stay, and travel toward Santa Monica and back.”
Boshears tried in vain to get his other passengers to exit the car,
but they remained inside. They all talked about what was happening
throughout the entire ordeal. Says Boshears, “I stopped, got out of the
car and stood there and looked up. I said, ‘Look at this! Get out and
look at this!’...comments like ‘Oh, do you see that?’ ‘Look at that!’
Constantly commenting back and forth. They were staying in the car.
They didn’t want to see it.”
Interestingly, they never used the word “UFO” during the entire
experience. They said, “Look at that! Look at that!” “Do you see
that?” “Yeah.” “What is that?” “What does that look like to you?”
After fifteen minutes, the display ended and Boshears’ passengers
said, “Let’s go. Let’s get out of here. Let’s go.”
Strangely, they didn’t even discuss the incident on the way home.
As Boshears says, “I didn’t say anything about it to anyone else...there
was no comment. I think we were more startled, and then later on,
saying, ‘Did we really see that?’...It’s easy to deny. You know what? It
doesn’t stop it from happening. I didn’t talk about it. The next day, all
my friends, we were talking. They said, ‘Bill, what time did you get
home last night?’ I said, ‘Well, I got home about, you know...’ I sort of
shuffled and passed it off. But the friends who were with me happened
to be at that same house -- we’re sitting on the patio talking. And we
all looked at one another like, ‘Are you going to tell them, or am I going
to tell them?’ And we just blew it off, let it go.”
For those who have already read UFOs Over Topanga Canyon,
much should sound familiar. However, Mr. Boshears’ testimony adds
yet another piece of the puzzle to the strange mystery that surrounds
the night of June 14, 1992, bringing the total number of witnesses to an
astounding sixteen. As can be seen, Boshear’s testimony corroborates
with the other accounts that evening. For whatever reason, the UFO
activity did not stop that night, and continues to this day. The number
of Topanga UFO witnesses has risen to more than a hundred.
The number one question still remains, why Topanga?
UFOS OVER TOPANGA CANYON is published by Llewellyn Publications,
2000. It contains 300 pages, a map of the sightings, an analysis of the
cases and an index. It is available at Llewellyn Publications, PO Box
64383, St Paul, MN 55164-0383. Or call 1-800-THE-MOON. Or visit
website: www.llewelyn.com. Also available at online bookstores.
