Diksha Sundriyal
In Netflix’s ‘Files of the Unexplained,’ several unexplained events are brought into the limelight, with each episode focusing on a different mystery. The first episode focuses on the story of two men who claimed to have been abducted by the aliens. As we follow the events that followed their claims, we understand not just the subjects of the story but also the community they spent their lives in. One of the men who made those claims was Charles Hickson. What did his life look like before and after he was visited by aliens? It’s quite a story, to say the least.
Charles Hickson was Repeatedly Visited by the Aliens
Born on April 16, 1931, Charles Hickson had seen all sorts of things in his life. He had served in the Korean War and was awarded five battle stars to acknowledge his heroic acts during the war. Having survived the brutal war, he knew what fear felt like, and there were only a few things in the world that could get to him. But then, on October 11, 1973, his life was changed forever as he came across a new kind of fear.
As recounted in the episode of ‘Files of the Unexplained,’ a 42-year-old Hickson and a 19-year-old Calvin Parker had been out fishing off a pier at the Shaupeter Shipyard when they heard strange noises behind them. Hickson described it as a hissing sound “like steam coming out of a pipe.” To their amazement, a spaceship about 10-15 yards from them was hovering 2-3 ft off the ground. Then, the door of the ship opened, and three beings floated towards them.
During an interview with The Mississippi Press in 1973, Hickson described them as “about 5-feet-tall, had bullet-shaped heads without necks, slits for mouths, and where their noses or ears would be, they had thin, conical objects sticking out, like carrots from a snowman’s head. They had no eyes, grey, wrinkled skin, round feet, and claw-like hands.” What Hickson later recognized as robots took him and Parker inside the ship where a huge eye-like thing probed them, and when the job was done, the robots left Hickson and Parker back where they were picked up from.
While the duo feared being laughed at, Hickson worried what this event meant for the safety of the country. Concerned that they could be under attack soon, he decided to go to the cops about it, and from there began the journey to tell and retell their story to the whole world. He and Parker appeared on all the popular talk shows, like The Dick Cavett Show, The Mike Douglas Show, and The Tonight Show, with Hickson even going under hypnosis on the Johnny Carson Show. He also passed a number of lie-detector tests to confirm that he wasn’t lying.
As strange as this incident had been, it wasn’t an isolated one. In fact, Hickson claimed to have been visited by the aliens repeatedly. In February 1974, he was squirrel hunting and stopped for rest and refreshment under a tree, where he suddenly got a glimpse of the craft from behind a bush, and a voice whispered in his head, telling him that they (the aliens) didn’t mean him any harm and that they’d return again soon. He heard the same voice again a month later while in his backyard. In May 1974, he and his family saw a light following them while returning home from a family get-together. When they slowed down, a saucer-shaped craft came close to their car, hovered for a bit, and then disappeared without a trace.
Hickson believed that when the aliens had first taken him, they implanted something behind his right eye to keep track of him. He found “a mole-looking thing” that he got checked out about three times, once by an oncologist, but no one could ascertain what it was. He further detailed his experiences in his book, ‘UFO Contact at Pascagoula.’ In 2019, a plaque was installed by the city near the abduction site in commemoration of the event that Hickson and Parker revealed to the world.
How Did Charles Hickson Die?
Charles Hickson died of a heart attack at the age of 80 on September 9, 2011, in Ocean Springs. He is laid to rest in the McGill Cemetery in Sandersville. He had been struggling with some health problems, especially with the clogged arteries in his neck.
Hickson was married to Blanche, who died in 2004 after suffering from rheumatoid arthritis for several years. They had two sons and three daughters: Charles Hickson Jr., Curtis Hickson Sr., Brenda Hynum, Sheila Hynum, and LaTisha Hurd. Calling himself a god-fearing man, he didn’t mind if people didn’t believe in his story, saying that he probably wouldn’t have believed it if it hadn’t happened to him. However, despite knowing that he may be laughed at by the world, Hickson said he felt it was something people deserved to know. He also stated that he wanted to go to the world where the aliens had come from, feeling that if “they ever decide to destroy this world, they might save a few of the people.” He liked to think that he would be one of those few.
Read More: Best Alien Abduction Movies on Netflix
