Decemystery (2019) 16: The Abduction of Alan Godfrey

What the text in the photo says.

Alien abductions are a topic I've wanted to talk about for over a year now. They are a very weird phenomenon and provide a very strange mystery to investigate, let alone write about. Although I believe in extraterrestrial life, the concept of alien abductions is something I've always scoffed at. Not because the concept itself is ludicrous—far from it. Humans abduct other humans for sick, twisted reasons. It stands to reason that aliens would do the same for their own reasons.

However, the concept of aliens traveling light years to probe someones rectum, play with their eyes, or extract their semen is really bizarre. Not helping matters is the idea that aliens would subject someone to think, then show people where they're from (in the case of Betty and Barney Hill) or share information about a rogue planet (in the case of Nancy Lieder, who brought to us the news of Nibiru).

But my personal biased aside, there are cases that make me pause and reconsider my extreme skepticism towards the concept. One of these would be the abduction of Travis Walton. His co-workers saw him get abducted and reported about it. They were suspected of murder until Walton reappeared five days later and confirmed their story. He later wrote a book that was adapted into a film known as Fire in the Sky. Perhaps we'll talk about that story next year though. Today's story isn't quite as fantastical, but it's one that's left gobsmacked.

Given that my father's a law enforcement officer, I wanted a story of a police officer who was abducted by aliens. To my surprise, this isn't something that's exactly rare. Aliens evidently have a fascination for men in uniform as there have been a fair number of incidents were lawmen have been whisked away by a fire in the sky of their own.

Of all the stories I looked over, one stood out among the rest. It’s a story of a British constable who lost a testicle in a fight and was told he'd never have a child again. That is, until he was abducted by aliens.

This is the story of Alan Godfrey.

Interplanetary 911 Call: The Mystery of Alan Godfrey's Abduction

A quick biography on Godfrey before we get to the fun part, though should you wish to read the entirety of where I got the information for this part from, click here. Godfrey was well-known for his work in “sudden and mysterious death” and was commended twice by the British police for it. Which two cases prompted these awards, I’m unsure of. Either way, Godfrey lived (and still lives) with his wife and had two children with her. This normal life would change forever on October 23, 1977 however when he responded to a report of three men who’d attacked a man the previous day. Despite requesting backup and being told to wait for it, Godfrey got out and attempted to arrest them. However, the men attacked him. During this, Godfrey sustained a blow to his groin, which resulted in the loss of a testicle. As a result, he was informed that he would be infertile and couldn’t father any more children.

Despite this news, Godfrey would later return to the police force and would continue his investigative work, including the still unsolved death of Zigmund Adamski (who we’ll cover in this entry). With that, we now know who Godfrey is and what he did prior to his encounter. As such, from here on out, my sources for this entry are the previously linked article plus one that also covers the important part of this story well. Click here if you want to read it.

In the months following the death of Adamski, the eastern portion of Britain began to have a rash of UFO sightings, including some that resulted in chases between the alien crafts and British police, a UFO that flew over an oil rig that was situated in the North Sea, and the legendary Rendlesham Forest UFO encounter.

That now brings us to six months after Adamski’s body was discovered. The date was November 28th, 1980. In the early morning hours, Godfrey was assigned to another case: multiple calls had been coming in from citizens regarding a herd of cows that had been disappearing and reappearing on Burnley Road. Godfrey drove out there, only to discover a strange lack of prints that would’ve signified the cows had passed through.

That was when Godfrey noticed something else down the road: a strange set of lights, oval in shape. Initially, he suspected that the lights were coming from a double-decker bus, but he quickly realized that buses don’t float five feet in the air. It was also causing the bushes on the sides of the road to shake.

Naturally spooked, Godfrey attempted to call for backup, only to find that his radio was “completely dead.” He also claimed—according to one of the sources I linked—that the craft was emitting a strange force that was disrupting nearby trees on both sides of the road. In spite of this, this “force” made no sound at all, nor did Godfrey feel any sort of vibration from within his vehicle. That said, he opted to stay in his car and began to sketch what he was seeing (which you can see in the picture above). Not long after he started his sketching, Godfrey reported what he called a “jump in time” and that he was 20–30 yards from where he’d last been, and was also driving. The road where the craft had also been was also dry in spite of the heavy rainfall from the previous night.

Upon returning to the station, Godfrey opted to not mention his incident with the UFO and instead requested assistance from two fellow officers with finding the cattle. However, even with the additional manpower, the couldn’t find the missing cows and the search was eventually called off.

Later that day, as Godfrey had breakfast, he heard that a driver who’d been to Burnley Road—which was three miles further out at Cliviger—had said he saw a “brilliant white object” and contacted the Todmorden police to report it. Adding to this, Halifax police were engaged in a stakeout for motorcycles that had been stolen, only to then see what they described as a “brilliant blue-white glow” descend into a valley that led to Todmorden not long before Godfrey had his own encounter.

Realizing he wasn’t alone, Godfrey opted to then file his own report, wherein he stated that his trip to Burnley Road, which should have only taken a mere 15 minutes, ended with him being gone for 45–50 minutes. Godfrey also stated that he had an “itchy, but painless mark” that had appeared on his foot and his boot was split horizontally on the sole.

This police report would prove to be a disastrous mistake on Godfrey’s part. Within a week, the station leaked the report to the press and they ran with it. This leak brought about an immense level of embarrassment for both Godfrey’s family and the department as a whole, the latter of which pressured him into resigning by taking away his car and instead giving him a bicycle. Eventually, he did resign.

At an unknown period in time—should one go by one of the two links I gave above for this story—Godfrey’s wife heard an unusual noise coming from outside of their house. Despite her attempts to wake her husband, he wouldn’t budge and the noise went unexplained. The following morning however, the two had sex for the first time since the beating that left Godfrey infertile—which was three years prior. This, incredibly, would result in a pregnancy and doctors later told him that somehow, his infertility had reversed. Both Godfrey and his wife now hold the belief that “the visitors” that Alan encountered was some sort of divine act—or something akin to that—that served as a positive function in his life.

During all of this, Godfrey had received suggestions from several acquaintances to undergo hypnotic regression therapy in order to find out what had happened during the time he was missing after he saw the UFO. While he was reluctant at first, he eventually gave in and saw a hypnosis therapist.

While he was under hypnosis, Godfrey stated that the UFO had caused his vehicle’s engine to stop and filled his radio with static. He was then blinded by an extremely bright light that had  caused him to lose consciousness. The next memory he claimed to have was being inside of a room that he described as resembling a normal house. Within the room with him was a large black doc and a man with a large beard that had several small (Godfrey described them as being the size of a “five-year-old lad”), robotic creatures with heads that were shaped like lamps. Though don’t take my word for it. Here’s what Godfrey had to say:

“They’re horrible…..small…three to four feet, like five year old lads! There are eight of them. He’s touching me…..He’s feeling at my clothes. They have hands and heads like a lamp. They keep touching me…….they are making noises……Joseph, I know him as Joseph. He has told me not to be frightened.

“They are robots! They’re not human! They’re robots! They’re his! They are Joseph’s robots! There’s a bloody dog…..it’s horrible! The size of an Alsatian!”

To some, these entities are akin to the Greys, which I’ll make a point to discuss next year in another entry when we go over the various kinds of aliens. For now, while these creatures bear some resemblance to the infamous large-headed, large-eyed extraterrestrial monsters, they supposedly aren’t at all the same.

The bearded individual who Godfrey said was dressed in “biblical” clothing, spoke to Godfrey via telepathy. He stated that his name was “Yosef”, though the excerpt above spells it Joseph and I’ve seen others spell it as Josef. I’ll just call him Yosef as it’s the way I initially saw it spelled. This enigmatic figure told Godfrey that he already knew who he was and also promised to visit him at a later date, but this hasn’t happened as far as I’m aware, unless the strange noises that Godfrey’s wife heard outside of the house that one night was Yosef visiting him again. Beyond this strange encounter, wherein Godfrey was asked a variety of questions (which I am unable to find specifics on), nothing else happened. Unlike an array of other abduction stories where the abductee has body fluid samples taken and probed, Godfrey’s encounter was significantly less invasive. In fact, after the session, Godfrey still lacked any memory of his abduction and isn’t even sure as to what he recalled what he supposedly remembered while under hypnosis.

That’s the end of Godfrey’s story. It’s easily one of the strangest alien abduction stories I’ve ever heard of and while it fits certain aspects of what’s common in these types of stories, the overall “abduction” is unlike anything I’ve ever heard of. Still, there’s one aspect to this story I want to go over before we get to the theories surrounding Godfrey himself. That’s of the man whose death Godfrey was investigating prior to his search for missing cows. So let’s dive into that briefly.

Extraterrestrial Contact or Terrestrial Accident: What Happened to Zigmund Adamski?

For many UFO and alien enthusiasts, the death of Zigmund Adamski is the other half of Alan Godfrey’s abduction. You mention one and you have to at least mention the other. I’ll try my best to keep this brief as Adamski’s story is a rabbit hole in of itself that I’d love to cover when I have more free time to do so. Until then, click here for the basics of the story; it’s the article I used to write this portion of the entry.

A Polish miner, 56-year-old Zigmund Adamski left his home on the eve of his niece’s wedding—June 6, 1980—to buy some potatoes. However, he never returned home, and his wife reported him missing.

A search began, but nothing came up. That is, until five days later on June 11th, 1980, when Adamski’s body was discovered atop a 12-foot pile of anthracite coal in Todmorden, which I’ll now state that loosely translates into “kill the dead” in German—or so says Google Translate and the article I linked above.

Police were immediately baffled by Adamski’s site of death: it was 20 miles from his home and it was here that Alan Godfrey stated that Adamski had died of a heart attack. Not only that, but it was also said that he had shaved within the past day—or that his beard had merely ceased to stop growing in the time he was missing. So what exactly happened? Well, one can hypothesize that Adamski was secretly depressed and wanted to disappear to prevent the shame and heartache of him being found dead. However, there's a problem with such a theory like this.

The coal was undisturbed.

To give an idea to this image: Adamski was found in a way that was closer to him having been dropped onto the coal, rather than having climbed it and then having suffered a heart attack. Not only that, but his shirt (though he was still in his suit), watch, and wallet were missing. There are also claims that it looked as though someone ad re-dressed him, but had done a very sloppy job of it. As the article I linked puts it: it was like the person (or persons) who did it hadn’t the faintest idea as to how to tie shoes, use buttons, or fasten pants.

To make things even weirder, there were strange burn marks discovered on Adamski’s neck and shoulders, both of which were apparently covered in what was described as a “green gelatinous substance”, which some claim was like a salve. However, the origin of his strange substance was never identified and I have no idea if there were even tests done on it. As a final note: the burns that were discovered were, allegedly, made two days prior to his death. As for the strange substance, it was to likely serve as an ointment of sorts.

Adding onto this oddness: it was determined that Adamski, despite having disappeared five days earlier, had only died a few hours prior to when his body was discovered. To date, it’s never been determined as to where he went prior to vanishing; I don’t think anyone has ever come forward to say they ever saw him at the market.

This is where the story all but ends. While I’d normally seek out an array of various theories people have put forth, I can really only find two given that the amount of information on this case seems to be limited to UFOlogists who are fascinated by the circumstances surrounding it. As such, I’ll very quickly go over them.

The first is extremely popular among UFO and alien enthusiasts and that’s that he was abducted by aliens and either died of fright, shock, or was outright killed by them. Personally, I’ve never heard of any story where an alien has outright killed anyone—at least not in any considerable amount of recent time. I’ve heard of stories where aliens have requested people remain calm and/or stay back, but nothing regarding outright murder.

The second theory is that he saw a UFO while atop the coal pile and died of a heart attack as a result of the shock. Exactly why he went there however is something I’ve yet to hear an explanation about.

Whichever theory you believe is entirely up to you. British police have about as much of an idea as to what happened as you and I do, so for all we know: the Cookie Monster beat him to death for stealing his cookies. With that out of the way however, let’s move onto more theories, this time for Alan Godfrey.

Theories

1. Godfrey was abducted by aliens

This theory is as it advertises on the tin: Godfrey was whisked away by aliens for a bit. They did what they always do and for whatever reason, be it out of benevolence or inadvertently, fixed his infertility. Unsurprisingly, both Godfrey and his wife believe this to be the case, though I don't know if they think the aliens were the traditional beings that we normally envision them as. Rather, it seems they view them as some sort of divine intervention.

The UFO community as a whole, on the other hand, subscribes to this theory, but doesn't see them as some sort of gift from God.

2. It was all in Godfrey's head and the doctors got the diagnosis wrong

Two of the most commonly given explanations for alien abductions are hallucinations and falsified memories.

To word this as simply as I can: the supposed abductee cannot account for a period of time and therefore attributes it to some malicious event. If there are others there that cannot account for it, they “craft” a story together. However, this story is more or less all fictional in nature as it's all a shared delusion.

I'm not a psychologist, so I can't vouch for how exactly this works. All I know for certain is many Ufologists see this theory as being complete hogwash. In the case of Godfrey, the way this theory would work is he saw something—perhaps a meteor or airplane—and mistook it for a UFO. He then blacked out and somehow conjured the memory of an abduction.

Sound weird? Well, it may be less weird if someone with actual experience in the psyche explained it. Either way, the biggest issue for many is the case of Godfrey's infertility. That can be explained as a misdiagnosis on the part of the doctors. However, given he lost a testicle, one would wonder how they'd manage such a thing. Sure, mistakes happen, but something like infertility isn't something that magically fixes itself.

Unless Godfrey's wife had an affair, but let's not assume such a thing.

3. Godfrey faked the entire thing

This theory posits that our intrepid abductee fabricated the entire story for 15 minutes of fame. It worked to some degree if that's the case.

As for his infertility, I don't know. It’s possible it was a complete and total misdiagnosis or it was some sort of divine miracle. Pick your theory.

My Take

The more I think about the idea of beings that have mastered the ability to travel light years in presumably no time flat, only to then abduct a man who lost a testicle out from a pool of billions of humans to perform experiments on, the more I’m left scratching my head at all of this.

Lemme reassert my position: alien abduction stories are almost always fishy to me. Why would aliens pick the abductee in question? Why not their neighbor, their best friend, their co-worker, their boss, their parent or parents, or their fifth grade history teacher? What made them so special? One can argue that in Godfrey’s case, he’d suffered a serious injury and they figured that was interesting enough to examine and they happened to know how to fix it. However, are there not countless other humans who’ve suffered similar injuries that they couldn’t abduct to examine?

To say that I think that Alan Godfrey’s case is suspicious is an understatement. At the same time though, I also can’t think of an explanation for it. Unless he’s lying, I’m left stumped. I guess I don’t have a serious take on it. He had no reason to lie and I don’t know as to how he could go from being infertile to being fertile, unless the doctors wrongly diagnosed him.

I guess I’ll mark this mystery as one that I don’t know the answer to. As for Zigmund Adamski: I haven’t the faintest idea as to what happened to that man.

Conclusion

Researching this case and writing about it were two of the most surreal things I’ve ever done. The nature of it is something that left me perplexed and laughing. On one hand, the idea that a man could be deemed infertile, only to suddenly have a child after allegedly being abducted by aliens is definitely something I never imagined I’d read—or write—about. On the other hand, there’s something rather funny about it all. I digress however. Godfrey’s case isn’t the most unusual alien abduction case that I’ve ever read about. No, that one we’ll get to sometime next year.