Skeptical information needed on the Val Johnson incident

PainKiller

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PainKiller
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I need help in debunking the Val Johnson incident. It seems to be hard to find skeptical information about it.

The incident involved Deputy Sheriff Val Johnson, and it was alleged that his police car was seriously damaged, it was even reported to be found sideways on the road. Many other strange things were reported like the electric clock running 14 minutes slow after the incident.

Philip J. Klass is the only skeptic I can find who has written about the incident, he dismissed the case as a hoax. Many people have a hard time dismissing the case as a hoax, they find it hard to imagine a sheriff smashing up his own police car.

For some reason UFO skeptics such as Steuart Campbell, Joe Nickell, Curtis Peebles have not written about this incident. I would have expected Robert Sheaffer to have covered this case, but I can't even find any evidence for this.

Can anyone direct me to any of the skeptic literature that exists on this case, and offer any of your opinions about it. Thank you.
 
Fast one, nothing you mention here seems to involve UFOs. All of the damage is quite explainable by a normal wreck/ intentional crash of the car. Absent such I fail to understand why skeptic functions should be needed.......

Not to mention that the only skeptic you found writing about it has pronounced it a hoax. So I am not sure what the need to find others is at this point...
 
I would argue that we simply do not know enough to say. Until and unless we can get solid evidence, the best thing to consider is that it is most likely a mundane explanation which I can think of quite a number.
 
If only there was some kind of mega genius who had insider information about aliens, he could figure it out.
 
Sounds like ball lightening to me, nothing alien has to be involved. He's lucky to be alive if it was in the car with him and subsequently exploded.
 
Here is what Philip J. Klass wrote:

The hard physical evidence leaves only two possible explanations for this case. One is that Johnson’s car was attacked by malicious UFOnauts, who reached out and hit one headlight with a hammerlike device, then hit the hood and windshield, then very gently bent the two radio antennas, being careful not to break them, then reached inside the patrol car to set back the hands of the watch on Johnson’s arm and the clock on the car’s dashboard. These UFOnauts would then have taken off Johnsons‘ glasses, aimed an intense ultraviolet light into his eyes, and replaced his glasses, while being careful not to shine ultraviolet on his face. Or the incident is a hoax. There are simply no other possible explanations. Nor are there any nearly identical incidents in more than thirty years of UFO reports.
Click to expand...

UFOs: The Public Deceived, Prometheus Books. p. 227

Obviously Klass is wrong, there could be other naturalistic explanations. There is no evidence UFOs were involved.

But the hoax hypothesis whilst possible has a number of problems, would a policeman smash up his own car? Would he damage his own eyes?
 
The answer "I don't know" is perfectly acceptable just like the term "UFO" is fine. . .Where you get into trouble is going from "UFO" to "Alien Craft."
 
PainKiller said:
Here is what Philip J. Klass wrote:



UFOs: The Public Deceived, Prometheus Books. p. 227

Obviously Klass is wrong, there could be other naturalistic explanations. There is no evidence UFOs were involved.

But the hoax hypothesis whilst possible has a number of problems, would a policeman smash up his own car? Would he damage his own eyes?
Click to expand...
Well, he could have driven the car into thick bush for some reason, causing the damage listed. The car clock and watch could have been reset simply to deceive others as to his whereabouts at a specific time. As for the UV light, how did he know that it was UV? You can't actually see it.

I wonder if he had been drinking, pranged the patrol car and knocked himself out. He then woke up, realised he was in deep doo-doo, made up a fake story, reset the clocks to cover the time period, and there you go.
 
Norman Alexander said:
Well, he could have driven the car into thick bush for some reason, causing the damage listed. The car clock and watch could have been reset simply to deceive others as to his whereabouts at a specific time. As for the UV light, how did he know that it was UV? You can't actually see it.

I wonder if he had been drinking, pranged the patrol car and knocked himself out. He then woke up, realised he was in deep doo-doo, made up a fake story, reset the clocks to cover the time period, and there you go.
Click to expand...

How about just having fallen asleep while driving . . . Some of what he saw might have even been a hallucination
 
This case got covered recently because it was implied to be the source for part of the events depicted in Fargo season 2. From what I read, Val Johnson never said or implied it was a UFO, others did. The car was examined and there may or may not have been unusual damage to the vehicle, reports are not consistent. Although I suppose he could have fallen asleep at the wheel, it was alleged that he had some kind of mild burns on his face and the description of what he saw seems consistent with some kind of natural phenomenon.

"I noticed a very bright, brilliant light, 8 to 12 inches in diameter, 3 to 4 feet off the ground," Johnson said in a taped police interview. "The edges were very defined."

The NPR story is worth reading.
http://www.mprnews.org/story/2015/10/27/fargo-val-johnson-incident
 
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PainKiller said:
But the hoax hypothesis whilst possible has a number of problems, would a policeman smash up his own car? Would he damage his own eyes?
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The hoax hypothesis is most likely, IMO.

I've seen the damage to the car and there is nothing there that a person(s) could not do. Some damage could be done with bare hands and some with an object such as a baseball bat, tire iron, hammer, rock, etc.

The motivation for a hoax isn't clear but it could have been that he simply wanted to be a person who had a "close encounter" with alien forces or something that seemed supernatural or highly exotic. Alternatively, a hoax could be a cover-up for some other event or occurance that he didn't want others to know about. Regular people do that sort of thing and it includes children and adults who engage in this diversionary tactic.

It's not so clear if there actually was damage to his eyes, the extent of the damage, its cause, or even if any damage could have been self-inflicted or inflicted by another person with a subsequent lie (diversion).
 
chuff8xt said:
"I noticed a very bright, brilliant light, 8 to 12 inches in diameter, 3 to 4 feet off the ground," Johnson said in a taped police interview. "The edges were very defined."
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He originally said that the 12" diameter light was 3 miles away when he began his high speed driving towards it. That's ridiculous. First, that you could define the diameter of such a light at 3 miles away and also to know how far away it was. Then, why accelerate towards it when it might just be a yard light at some rural farm or house or just a normal sort of light being used by a normal sort of person and situation?

The NPR story is worth reading.
Click to expand...
MPR, not NPR.
 
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Desert Fox said:
How about just having fallen asleep while driving . . . Some of what he saw might have even been a hallucination
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The damage to the car is unlike a collision with anything while driving. IMO, the damages were done manually with the car being stationary.

I believe that it is a staged hoax, or partially staged (cover-up).
 
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