Greg Bishop has published The Excluded Middle – a UFO/fortean/conspiracy zine – since 1993, and has contributed to Fortean Times, UFO Magazine and Magical Blend.

I do not choose these from an evidentiary standpoint, they are simply personal favourites. In chronological order:

1. Flatwoods Monster – West Virginia, USA, 1952.
You all know this one. What many readers may not know is that Ivan Sanderson investigated this case within days and came away convinced that something strange had happened, as other witnesses came forward and described numerous glowing objects that had invaded the area, flying behind and landing on hills near Flatwoods.

2. Kelly-Hopkinsville – Kentucky, USA, 1955.
Two families having a get-together were accosted by a group of small, glowing, goblin-like beings for hours. Some of the witnesses did what any rural folk would do when bothered by scary, furtive visitors – they shot at them – which elicited a sound like bullets hitting metal, and only caused the critters to fall over and scurry away before returning for more.

3. Antonio Villas-Boas case – Brazil, 1957.
Villas-Boas claimed that he had sex with an alien woman. He sought no publicity for the incident and it seemed to genuinely trouble him. Covered up for a few years in the US and UK due to prudishness.

4. Unknown – Along Pan-American highway, Chile, 1950s.
I can’t recall the details of this one, only that it was recounted in one of the APRO books by Coral Lorenzen. A motorist stopped to examine a strange object along the road and was surprised to see a being shaped, as I recall, like a 3 foot banana, with skin that looked like tan or grey terrycloth. This case is either a hoax or one-of-a-kind, and very funny as well as disturbing.

5. Rex Heflin sighting and photos – Santa Ana, CA, USA, 1965.
Photos (including ones that were confiscated by the authorities and returned mysteriously to Heflin before his death) were recently re-analysed and proved to be consistent with Heflin’s memory and report of the sighting.

6. Mothman Sightings – West Virginia, USA, 1966.
Recounted in John Keel’s landmark book, there was so much weirdness connected with this story – men in black, doppelgangers, furtive lights, strange phone calls – that many UFO investigators and historians refuse to take the case seriously. That is a shame, as there may be keys here to unlocking the interconnected nature of the UFO phenomena with other fortean issues.

7. Herbert Schirmer – Ashland, NB, USA, 1967.
Patrolman encountered a landed craft-like object on a lonely stretch of highway and saw it take off. Regressive hypnosis by Dr Leo Sprinkle elicited an encounter with apparently friendly beings who showed him around the craft and left him with this piece of wisdom: “We want you to believe in us, but not too much.”

8. Pascagoula Abduction – Mississippi, USA, 1973.
Calvin Parker and Charles Hickson were fishing from a pier on the evening of 10 October. They became aware of a noise behind them and saw three creatures emerge from an egg-shaped craft behind them. They were grabbed and taken on board. Their drawings of the beings look curiously like southwest American Indian kachinas. A tape recording of the witnesses was made secretly while the two were left alone in a room in the local sheriff’s office, and the two sounded genuinely perplexed and frightened by their experience. Hickson had two more sightings, one with multiple witnesses.

9. Scary Night – Thousand Oaks, CA, USA, 1975.
This one was uncovered by investigator Brian Vike. It’s very creepy, even if there is no proof as yet. The case has fireballs, scared animals, unearthly screams, and missing time. From the witness account:

“My dad and brother were at the front door going out as I came in so I followed them outside. They went down the driveway while I went over to the gate on the west side of the house to see if I could find the dogs. I rattled the gate, and still no dogs but I heard the scream again, at the edge of our property, about near the drainage ditch. I went back to the front of the house and could see my brother and dad standing on the sidewalk in front of the 2nd lot, looking up at the hill.

“I saw my dad and brother flinch down and the scream was thunderous. By far the loudest we had heard, and the house was blocking me. My dad and brother came running up the driveway, asking me if I’d seen the fireballs (which I hadn’t). They said two blue fireballs came shooting over their heads and hit the hill and immediately the thing screamed its shriek. This was the only time in my life I saw my dad scared.”

10. Cash-Landrum Incident – Texas, USA, 1980.
Betty Cash and Vickie Landrum were on their way home from dinner with Landrum’s grandson when they saw a diamond-shaped object hovering over the highway spitting flames. All (especially Cash, who exited the car to get a better look) were affected with symptoms of radiation exposure. Helicopters appeared to “shepherd” the object away until it was apparently airworthy again. The US government later offered hush-up money, which was rejected by Cash and Landrum’s lawyer.