Our story begins on a chilly spring morning in Portage County, Ohio, on April 17, 1966. While patrolling a stretch of road known as Route 224, Sheriff deputies Dale F. Spaur and auxiliary Officer Wilbur H. Neff, had been listening to the chatter over their two-way radio of people reporting UFOs in a nearby county. When they spotted a parked car along side the road between Atwater and Randolph, and decided to stop and check it out.

They routinely investigated parked cars as it was one of their duties to stop and give aid to stranded motorists. But right away they knew this car was going to be different. The car, a dark 1959 Ford sedan without licence plates had a small emblem on the door of a red triangle with a bolt of lightning running through the center. But what really caught their attention were the words printed above the triangle-shaped insignia that read "Seven Steps To Hell".

Getting out and checking the vehicle for its occupants. They soon discovered the car was full of odd electrical equipment neatly arranged on the back seat. Standing there and looking up and down the road wondering where the driver might be? Deputy Spaur began to notice a low hum in the air. Looking over to Neff and about to ask "do you hear that?" he was abruptly interrupted by a light that suddenly switched on behind them.

Both men quickly turned to see where the light was coming from and became aware of a brilliant metallic object rising out of a row of trees situated next to them. Neff stunned by what he was seeing, froze with his mouth open. Spaur, now feeling heat from the intense light, looked down to see if his clothes had caught fire!

The light became so intense the deputies found it hard to look directly at it. But looking back toward the object Spaur and Neff soon realized it had drifted overhead and was hovering directly above them. Alarmed by this the deputies ran back to their patrol car and took cover.

As they sat there shaking Spaur grabbed the microphone and radioed Sergeant Schoenfelt his dispatcher. Spaur reported that they were seeing the UFO everyone's talking about and that it had been hovering over them but was now starting to move off to the East.

Sergeant Schoenfelt excitedly ordered "Follow it, and see where it goes? I'll send out the photo unit!"

At that moment, the object began moving east down Route 224, so deputies Spaur and Neff gave chase.

At Salem, Ohio, police despatcher Jack E. Cramer had been monitoring the radio traffic between Spaur and Ravenna, when Sergeant Schoenfelt radioed officer Cramer and asked if Salem could get someone out to photograph the object. However, it soon became clear to both Stations, that Spaur and Neff had merged onto Route 14, and were now headed toward East Palestine, Ohio.

Salem police officers Ray Esterly and Lonnie Johnson unable to join in the pursuit and thinking that there might be an off-hand chance a flying saucer was in the vicinity. Decided to take up a postion on nearby hill in the hopes of seeing what it was Spaur & Neff were pursuing.

Esterly and Johnson had barely reached the crest of the hill. When suddenly, in the eastern sky they saw three USAF fighter jets chasing a large bright object. Officer Johnson radioed back to Cramer and reported their observations, adding that the object appeared to be five times as large as the jets pursuing it.

Everyone now tuned-in to the radio chatter in hopes of learning where deputies Spaur and Neff might turn up next. Heard a loud voice quite unexpectedly boom over their radios:

"I'm going down to take a look at it... I'm right above it, and it's about forty-five feet across; something trailing behind it, like a ball of fire."

Salem radio despatcher Cramer and police Lieutenant Richard M. Whinnery heard the mysterious transmission and logged it.

Meanwhile, back to the ground pursuit, the object's light was so intense it lit up the entire roadway and fields beneath it. Spaur and Neff were now passing through East Palestine, Ohio, when Patrolman Wayne Huston, of the East Palestine Police, joined in the pursuit.

Together they chased it across the state-line and into Pennsylvania. At times the officers reached speeds upwards of 103 miles per hour.

While listening to a police scanner Police Chief Gerald Buchert of Mantua, Oh., saw the weird aerial display and managed to snap a picture as it passed by.

The two patrol cars now merged onto Route 51, and pursued the object through Rochester, Pa. where they than merged onto Route 65, and continued on up to Conway, Pa. Spaur, now low on gas, pulled along side of a Conway police car driven by officer Frank Panzanella, who had stopped to watch the strange object himself. When Spaur stopped the object did as well. So officer Panzanella decided to get out and join Spaur, Neff and Huston watch it hover, rapidly climb, hover again, and dart about the sky.

The object appeared to be 40 feet in diameter and about 18 feet high. It had a dome-shaped top that at times showed a projection of some kind near the trailing edge. It appeared self-illuminated except the top trailing portion which looked metallic but not shiny. On this description all officers later agreed.

While in Conway, Spaur phoned the Air Force and within minutes the deputies heard radio traffic of jet fighters being scrambled to intercept the object. Shortly afterwards the object suddenly shot straight up and vanished.

At one point in the chase near Rochester, Spaur, Neff and Huston lost sight of the object while going through an underpass. But when they emerged the object had come down low to the ground and was waiting for them. As though it were playing some kind of cat-and-mouse game.

They had chased it for eighty-six miles at speeds in excess of a hundred miles an hour across the border into Pennsylvania. But in the end the object sped off into the morning light.

Below, is the news item that appeared in the newspaper the next day:

RAVENNA - Hundreds of persons in two states reported seeing a "brilliant and shiny" object over eastern Ohio early yesterday. Two Portage County deputies chased it 86 miles.

Portage County Deputy Sheriff Dale Spaur said he and his partner, Deputy Sheriff W.H. Neff played tag with the mysterious object from 5 a.m. near Ravenna to 6:30 a.m. on the outskirts of Pittsburgh.

Police Chief Gerald Buchert of Mantua saw the object and photographed it in front of his home. He showed a print of his picture to the Plain Dealer but said the Air Force told him not to release it or permit photographs to be taken.

BUCHERT DESCRIBED it as "round when I looked straight up at it, but when it moved to the left - I feel like an idiot saying this - it looked like a saucer, like two table saucers put together."

The photograph showed an object with a very dark bottom and a very light top. Each half seemed to resemble a saucer seen from the side. The lighter top "saucer" was upside down.

Spaur described the object as about 40 feet wide and 18 feet high. He said he clocked it at speeds up to 103 mph as they chased it from Randolph Township to Conway, Pa.

A BRILLIANT beam of light from the object lit the area. Spaur said, "It was so bright, even with the sun coming out, it stood out. Its lines were very distinct," he said as he used the bell of a flashlight to describe the object.

"We were close, closer than I ever want to be again," he told the Plain Dealer. "I know nobody's going to believe it but its true."

Spaur said all his former doubts about UFOs were removed.

"Somebody had control over it. It wasn't just an object floating around. It can maneuver. The only sound was a steady, faint humming like an electrical transformer when we first spotted it," he said. The sound was inaudible as the deputies chased the object, they added.

AT CONWAY, PA., Spaur said the object began hovering and was "going for altitude, straight up."

After watching for about 20 minutes, he and the others went inside the police station to telephone U.S. Air Force officials he said, and when they came back outside the object was gone.

The Federal Aviation Agency's Air Traffic Control Centers at Oberlin and Pittsburgh said they spotted no unknown objects on their radar early yesterday.

The first official investigation of this incident was headed up by Major Quintanilla, himself. However, his investigation consisted of a two and a half minute long distance phone call to Deputy Spaur.

According to a signed deposition by Deputy Spaur, Maj. Quintanilla started out his interrogation with:

"tell me about this mirage you saw."

Quintanilla, then asked the Deputy to sign an affidavit, stating that the chase only consisted of a few minutes. But Spaur would have none of it, and protested he would not. At this point, the Major ended the interrogation and hung up.

According to Congressional records it took Congress to pressure Maj. Quintanilla to actually visit Ravenna, Oh. to meet with, and interview deputies Spaur and Neff.

The US Air Force who later told the National Press Corps that Sheriff deputies Spaur, Neff and Huston, had only been chasing a satellite, and after losing sight of that the planet Venus. Maintained its standing order that Police Chief Gerald Buchert of Mantua, Ohio, not release his photograph to the press?

A reporter working for the Cleveland Plain Dealer who actually saw the photograph. Described the object as looking like two saucers put together, with the top saucer being darker than that of the bottom saucer.

This picture of a supposed satellite passing by the planet Venus, has never been made public, nor available for analysis. In fact, it has been lost in the shuffle of time, as so many other UFO photographs. Only this time we know the culprits' responsible for its' disappearance!

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NOTES:

* Sketch of Floyd submitted by Deputy Spaur.

* A great daylight photograph of Floyd did eventually turn up on November 11, 1966. This rare photo survived because it was never reported to the press, or Project BLUEBOOK. According to the hunters who took the picture. The object made a humming sound before setting fire to their campsite. Moments later, a pair of F-104 Starfighters swooped down out of the sky and chased it away! Courtesy of Ted Phillips

* Even though some 7th Army "A" insignia patches having the words "Seven Steps to Hell" printed on the bottom existed. They were officially unauthorized, and any soldier caught wearing the patch was considered out-of-uniform.

* According to William Weitzel, whom allegedly acting on behalf of NICAP, stated that the mysterious automobile played no part in the actual event. Claiming to have made a thorough investigation, he purports that the automobile's owner was quickly traced? And that he had examined the abandoned vehicle on Route 224, himself only sixteen hours after the incident.

Weitzel would later write:

"It had some tapes, a cheap Japanese transistor toy tape recorder with a tape of hillbilly music on it, some miscellaneous electrical gear, in the back seat. Trunk full of old tires." And that it did not have a "Seven Steps to Hell insignia" on the car's door.

Let's review this, shall we - Just hours after the incident Mr Weitzel shows up on the scene and offers Spaur and Neff assistance. In fact Mr. Wietzel was present during every aspect of this case except the actual sighting.

He even attended Major Quintanilla's second interview with Deputy Spaur. According to Wietzel's notes the deputy had requested it.

Good cop - Bad cop?

This may all be true. But if Deputy Spaur knew what Wietzel was up to at the time. He would have felt once again betrayed by those around him.

I once had a summer cold like Mr. Wietzel. I just couldn't shake it till winter.

I found Wietzel's later remarks puzzling for two very good reasons. First, deputies Spaur and Neff have always maintanined that the automobile in question had a triangle insignia on its side and was indeed full of odd electrical equipment.

And secondly, that they had returned to the site less than five hours later and the mystery car was gone!

Whereas, our name dropping bona fide'in friend of NICAP claims he investigated the site 16 hours later, only to find an old broken down jalopy filled with children's toys & hill-billy music.

I guess it's always possible that someone came along and switched cars without Mr. Wietzel's complicity?

In my assessment - Mr. Wietzel's presence in this case was as mysterious as our phantom Ford.

Most folks remember watching the 'Pheonix lights' video on the Nightly News or later seeing it replayed ad nauseam over the History Channel. Researchers are still debating whether the video depicts military flares or that of some gigantic craft? But most people are totally unaware that the best video captured that night disappeared rather mysteriously at the hands of the MIB.

The intrigue really got started when an envoy of intellectual dullards turned up on television to squelch the discourse on the Nightly News. Letters to the editor rolled into print dispelling any notion that something of interest had ever occurred in the skies over Arizona.

The Governor called a news conference where he dubiously announced authorities had captured the pilot of the odd aircraft. He then paraded around some clown in an alien costume as though the whole affair were a joke!

But real world events taking place behind the scenes weren't that funny. Devotees of some spooky alumni reunion showed up in town and took more than a passing interest in the 'Pheonix Lights' videos. MIB were back riding around in black cars vistiting folks all throughout Arizona and eastern Nevada. They busied themselves collecting film or anything else that smacked evidence.

What's interesting is that it actually made the local news! Now that's ripe...

So our MIB saga continues with this transcript taken from a November 18, 1997 Fox News Channel 10, broadcast with Jim Schnebelt reporting:

Men in Black Intercept PHOENIX LIGHTS Video Footage?

From the FOX-10 '10 files'...

(Jim Schnebelt): Months after this (picture of Pheonix lights) sighting there are many questions regarding the strange lights over Phoenix. Is this a solid craft, or merely lights in an empty sky?

What could be the conclusive evidence is now mysteriously missing.

Richard Curtis claims his home video is proof that this sighting was a huge flying craft. And he claims his video shows a solid object in the sky passing over his home.

(Richard Curtis): I saw the bottom part (of the craft) as it went over Phoenix, because the lights lit the bottom of it, and it partially blocked out the clouds and the stars.

(Schnebelt): Curtis called City Councilwoman Frances Emma Barwood, wanting to show her the footage.

(Frances Barwood): He said he had it on two videotapes, and would I like them, so I said, "Of course I would.", and could he give me copies of them. He said he would. I told him how to get them to my office and to mark them 'personal and confidential'.

(Schnebelt): But before Curtis could send copies to Barwood, he's paid a visit by two mysterious men in black.

(Curtis): They were dressed in black suits, with black hats and sunglasses. They asked me if I had tapes for coucilwoman Barwood, and I said "Yah, they're laying right here." They said, "We've stopped by to pick them up." So I said, "Great!" and just handed the tapes to them.

(Barwood): I didn't get them, and I have no idea who these two men were since I have just females working in my office. Its absolutely puzzling to me.

(Schnebelt): Did the tapes ever exist, and if so were they proof of more than "lights" in the sky? And who were these mysterious Men in Black who allegedly took them?

(Curtis): I think someone listened in on that phone call and wanted those tapes.

(Barwood): I can't explain it. Its just eerie.

The mystery continues. Jim Schnebelt, Fox-10 News.

I think this case is classic and it should be treated as such. It has all the MIB accuruements, such as their posing as officials, intercepting phone conversations, confiscating film, and one even suspects 24/7 home surveillance.

If not, how'd the MIB know they got all the material?

I guess we'll just have to wait 50 some odd years until U.S. Space Command or some other alphabet, declassifies a document labelled: "Pheonix Lights Damage Control" (or something along those lines) before we know what really happened that night in the skies over Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico?

In my assessment - The Pheonix lights were a large section of an underwater base being airlifted to its new home along some important shoreline.

I know that sounds abit wild, but I had to come up with something. On the otherhand, it could've been visitors from another world?