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———, 1980. The Disappearance of Flight 19. New
York: Harper and Row, Publishers.
Sand, George X., 1952. “Sea Mystery at Our Back
Door.” Fate 5, 7 (October): 11–17.
Sanderson, Ivan T., 1970. Invisible Residents: A Dis -
quisition upon Certain Matters Maritime, and the
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This Earth. New York: World Publishing Company.
Bethurum, Truman (1898–1969)
Truman Bethurum was one of the stars of the
1950s contactee movement. In a 1953 issue of
Saucers magazine, Bethurum reported that in
the early morning hours of July 28, 1952, he
met eight little men of “Latin” appearance and
was led to a nearby flying saucer. There he
met the captain, a beautiful woman named
Aura Rhanes from Clarion, a planet never visible
to humans because it is always on the
other side of the moon. Clarion, Bethurum
was informed, is a peaceful, utopian world;
fear of nuclear war on Earth had led the Clar-
ionites to visit and observe earthlings at first hand. Bethurum claimed further contacts. In
the mid-1950s, Bethurum established a communelike
“Sanctuary of Thought” in Prescott,
Arizona. He was a regular at the Giant Rock
Interplanetary Spacecraft Convention and
other contactee venues. He remained active
on the circuit until his death in Landers, California,
on May 21, 1969.
Two early chroniclers of the contactee subculture
found themselves “favorably and very
deeply impressed with Mr. Bethurum’s
unimaginative sincerity” (Reeve and Reeve,
1957). Another apparent believer was Mary
Bethurum, his first wife, who divorced him
on the grounds that he was engaged in a sexual
relationship with Aura Rhanes. More cynical
observers, such as Saucer News editor
James W. Moseley, judged Bethurum to be a
liar, motivated by a desire to enrich himself at
believers’ expense. Bethurum refused to undergo
polygraph examination to verify his
story, and when asked to submit, for scientific
analysis, a letter said to have been composed
UFO contactee Truman Bethurum (Fortean Picture
Library)
Bethurum, Truman 43
Cover of Aboard a Flying Saucer by Truman Bethurum
(Fortean Picture Library)
by Aura Rhanes, he declined, explaining that
“paper on Clarion is made out of just the