Diksha Sundriyal
Strange incidents and unsolved mysteries take centerstage in Netflix’s ‘Files of the Unexplained.’ The first episode focuses on the Pascagoula Alien Abduction of two men named Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker. The half-hour episode explores the origins of what has now become a local legend, focusing not just on what the duo claims happened to them but also on how the event transformed their lives. They may have been through a similar experience, but the road forward was very different for both of them. For Calvin Parker, things were a tad bit more difficult.
Calvin Parker Tried to Stay Away From the Limelight Following the Abduction Claim
On the evening of October 11, 1973, 19-year-old Calvin Parker’s life changed completely when he and Charles Hickson were allegedly abducted by aliens. In sync with Hickson’s account, Parker revealed that they came across the craft while fishing and were greeted by three things that later turned out to be robots. Two took hold of Hickson, and one got Parker. While Hickson thought Parker had fainted, the latter revealed that he was only paralyzed, that he was actually conscious throughout the whole thing.
In talking with CBS News, Parker revealed that the aliens took him to their ship and gave him a thorough exam. He talked about a device “the size of a deck of cards” hovering and clicking around his face. Once it was done, a “more feminine-looking creature” came out and did another weird exam that made him feel like he was being choked. However, she telepathically told him not to be afraid as they (the aliens) didn’t intend to hurt him.
After their exams were done, the aliens left him and Hickson back at the same spot. Hickson recovered quicker, though he did take a few sips of alcohol in his car to calm his nerves. The young Parker was more visibly shaken, and at first, he didn’t want to share this incident with anyone, knowing that it would make them a subject of ridicule. It was on Hickson’s insistence that he decided to join him and went to the police to report the incident.
As the incident picked the media limelight, Parker went on a couple of talk shows with Hickson. However, while the latter seemed more comfortable talking to the media, Parker decided he didn’t want to talk about it anymore. For forty-five years, he maintained his silence, and it wasn’t until his wife insisted he talk about it, even if to get some closure, that he eventually wrote a book, ‘Pascagoula – The Closest Encounter: My Story,’ about his experience. By then, he had also suffered a stroke and had been through two open-heart surgeries. The near-death experiences gave him the perspective he needed to tell the story. “Everyone has an expiration date, and I wanted to get this out there before I die,” he said.
Apart from the book, he also attended UFO conventions to discuss the incident. He also started a company called UFO Investigations in 1993, through which he and his partners aimed “to produce television segments” about UFOs, alien abductions, and other related incidents. Parker was also there in 2019 when a plaque commemorating the event was placed on the abduction site.
How Did Calvin Parker Die?
Calvin Parker died on August 24, 2023, after a long battle with kidney cancer. The 68-year-old was surrounded by his friends and family. Married to Waynette, with whom he had been in a relationship since before his encounter with the aliens, Parker had suffered a stroke in 2010 and was on disability aid. After leaving Pascagoula following the incident, he traveled around a lot, trying to stay away from the limelight. Whenever he felt like the people were starting to recognize him and that he would be in the spotlight, he would leave the city and move somewhere else. He took various jobs over the years, including oil industry and construction jobs.
While it was easier for Charles Hickson to process the alien incident, Parker found it much more difficult to make peace with the whole thing. Even when he’d started talking about the incident in public, he never completely came to terms with the thing, saying: “This is something I really didn’t want to happen.” The incident took a heavy mental toll on him, and he received medical help while also trying to find some peace of mind away from the news channels and the media. He had been so disturbed by the whole thing that he sometimes wondered what really happened that day and if what he and Hickson had seen were really demons sent by Satan.
Despite his own confusion of things and what may or may not have happened that night, Parker said that it’s difficult to pin everything down, but he knows that something did happen. He also stood by his decision not to discuss the incident in the media as much as Hickson did. He feels that the distance from the media circus actually helped him, saying that he was “kind of glad it did happen because I got to meet a lot of people I wouldn’t have gotten to meet” and that without it, his life would have been very different.
Read More: Charles Hickson: How did the Pascagoula Alien Abductee Die?
