Truman Bethurum

Truman Bethurum began publishing accounts of his contacts with alien visitors in magazines and newspapers in 1953. Bethurum, a mechanic on a crew engaged in road construction in the California desert, published his account as the book "Aboard a Flying Saucer" in 1954. In this book Bethurum recounts multiple contacts with the crew of the flying saucer named ‘The Admiral’s Scow.’ The Scow and her crew were from the planet Clarion, a planet hidden from detection from Earth because it lies on the other side of the moon. His first encounter occurred while he was sleeping in his truck late one night. He awakened to discover his vehicle was surrounded by eight or ten diminutive men, each standing between four and five feet tall. Bethurum, like Adamski, seemed to have an eye for fashion and gave a detailed description of the beings’ attire.
"Suddenly I realized that there was something different about these little men; not that they were dwarfs. They were fully developed small men. The real difference which struck me so forcibly was that they all seemed to be wearing some sort of uniform – unfamiliar to me. All but two or three of them wore black billed caps with a black band around the bottom. Of the bareheaded ones, all whose hair was black and crew cut, one’s hair was wavy. And all of them wore jackets like cowboys and trousers of material which reflected a blue-grayish cast under the bright moonlight. Their dark olive hued faces were bland and without lines or blemishes, like the skin was taut and hard over the bone structure." (35)

Climbing down from his truck, Bethurum was startled by the sight of an enormous saucer shaped craft. Appearing to be made of burnished steel the craft was three hundred feet in diameter and six yards deep at the center. It was hovering a few feet above the ground.
Even more startling to Bethurum than the crew of little men or the silently hovering saucer was the captain of the vessel, Aura Rhanes. Getting over the initial shock of seeing a female commander, Bethurum was soon entranced by her beauty and personality.
"She was a trifle shorter than any of the men I had seen. Her smooth skin was a beautiful olive and roses, and her brown-eyed flashing smile seemed to make her complexion appear more glowing. I am sure she wore no makeup, but she certainly needed none.
So this queen of women was the lady captain!
She wore no jewelry, not even a buckle on her belt.
Her black hair was short and brushed into an upward curl at the ends, and she wore jauntily tilted on one side of her proudly held head a black and red beret. She was standing before a great wide flat topped desk, with her graceful hands resting upon it. Her bodice was of some fitted material which looked like black velvet, with sort sleeves decorated with a small red ribbon bow. The top of her skirt, which I could see above the edge of the desk, was the most radiant red material I have ever seen. It looked like wool and we set all around in small flat pleats." (40-41)

The planet Clarion was described as a near perfect Eden. Bethurum learned that there are no traffic jams and that all roadways were wide, smooth, and level. Transportation is quick and easy in “little neutornic jeeps.” Accidents are avoided by anti-magnetic flashes which kept the vehicles from making contact with each other. The people of Clarion worship a supreme deity: omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent. Like Adamski’s Venusians, the Clarions like to dance. Aura Rhames told Bethurum that their planet had many styles of dancing: polkas, square dances, old time dances, folk dances, and ballets.
According to Bethurum’s own account his second wife divorced him because she was jealous of Captain Aura Rhanes, perhaps with good reason. Columba Krebs, an artist who worked closely with Bethurum, reported that he had hired a secretary who he claimed looked remarkably liked the tiny Captain. In any event, Bethurum seems to have moved on, marrying his third wife at one of Van Tassel’s Giant Rock saucer conventions.