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John William Tuohy lives in Washington DC

When Fiction becomes Fact: The Betz UFO ball.

  

 



On March 27, 1974 members of the Betz family were near their property on Ft. George Island, which is a patch of dry ground along the coastal marshlands of northeastern Florida. They were inspecting the damage done by a small brushfire when they came across a bright metal globe, about the size of a bowling ball. It was sitting there in the grass. It was heavy and a few guessed it to be an old cannonball.

They took it back to the house and when Terry Betz started playing the guitar, the ball, the family reported, started to move around. The Betzes experimented with it, placed it on their table, and watched it navigate its own way around the perimeter without falling off.

According to the family “Doors began slamming themselves around the house. Mysterious organ music filled the residence, even though there was no organ.”

Mrs. Betz then called the US Navy base directly across the water from the island and asked if they could examine it; perhaps it was theirs. They did but returned it to the Betzes once they verified that it was not Navy property. The navy X-rayed it and did a metallurgical test and found it to be high grade yet common stainless steel; hollow with a shell approximately 1/2 inch thick (about 13 mm); measured 7.96 inches in diameter (202.2 mm); and weighed 21.34 pounds (9.68 kg). The numbers added up, it was the right weight for that much stainless steel. Its surface was scuffed but seamless, with only one identifying mark: a tiny triangle about 3mm long.

Dr. J. Allen Hynek, a UFOlogist and astronomer at Northwestern University in Chicago examined the ball with five other scientists and concluded "None will go so far as to say it's extra-terrestrial. They would be putting their scientific reputations on the line."

Robert Edwards, president of a Jacksonville, FL. equipment supply company, saw a photo of the ball in his local newspaper and went to the local UPI office with a brand new stainless steel ball, manufactured by Bell & Howell in Bridgeport, Connecticut. It weighed and measured exactly the same as the Betz sphere.

"I'm not saying that this thing didn't come from outer space because I've never seen it," said Edwards. "All I'm saying is that the physical description of it matches exactly the type of ball we have in stock."

As for the many published news reports about the ball moving on its own etc. the fact was that the ball sat quietly on display inside the Betz home for nearly two weeks and is not reported to have ever moved on its own at all.

Regarding the ball's movement, the Navy's spokesman Chris Berninger concluded: "I believe it's because of the construction of the house... It's old and has uneven stone floors. The ball is almost perfectly balanced, and it takes just a little indentation to make it move or change direction."