Saucers and St. John

Loren Coleman has a fascinating new post up at his Twilight Language blog titled St. John's Day: June 24th ~ Flying Saucers, Fires, Forteana, and Finding MacFarlane's Bear.

As Loren notes, not only is June 24 St. John's Day, it's also the day on which (in 1947) the era of Flying Saucers was ushered in, thanks to pilot Kenneth Arnold and the curious craft he encountered at Mount Rainier, Washington State.

Loren also notes that: "Mystery deaths are often associated with St. John's Day."

And that includes people in the UFO field, too, as Loren reveals:

"The deaths of various UFO (aerial and related phenomena) researchers, writers, and fans (Frank Scully, June 24, 1964; Frank Edwards, near the coming midnight of the 24th, on June 23, 1967; Arthur Bryant, June 24, 1967; Richard Church, June 24, 1967; Willy Ley, June 24, 1969; Jackie Gleason, June 24, 1987). June 24, 2006 saw the death of renegade publisher Lyle Stuart who published anomalist writer Frank Edwards’ Fortean book, in 1959, Stranger than Science, a paperbook full of information on ufology and other unexplained accounts."