Files from ufologists in Sweden
Jan Ove Sundberg archive - a life as a UFO-fortean journalist
In the 2005-2008 period AFU has acquired the UFO/USO archives of free-lance journalist Jan Ove Sundberg of Motala, Sweden. The archive has now been put into order by Anders Liljegren and Sven-Olov Svensson.
Jan Ove, sometimes better known as 'Texas' (because he always used to wear a Western hat), started his journalistic career in 1973 by writing field investigative articles for UFO-Sweden's publications. He has since published many hundreds of UFO/fortean articles in Swedish weeklies and foreign
publications. For many years he made a living on writing about every known (and unknown) phenomena of this world. A fairly complete collection of these articles are included with the archives, thus also documenting a free-lance writers work in many diverse subject areas.
In 1983-85 and 1993-96 he published a handful of Swedish wide-spread fortean magazines of his own. He also published two Swedish books themed on 'Phantom submarines' (1993) and 'Scandinavian lake monsters' (1995). His complete submarine/USO investigations are included with the AFU files, while Jan Ove retains his cryptozoological & GUST (lake monster investigation) files. Due to returning cancer in his spine Jan Ove has had to put his research activities on hold in recent years, however.
A book that Jan Ove planned on Swedish UFO abductions never materialized but the interview material (some fifty audio tapes; transparencies) for the project is on file at AFU and saved for posterity.
The complete archives includes fourteen file folders; some 200 audio cassettes; more than 1.000 transparencies related to UFOs/USOs/submarines; several hundred paper photographs (now ordered within our picture library, by report date, or by subject). The files also include Sundbergs active correspondence, including that with American journalist John A. Keel during 1974-1977.
Inga-Lill Wallin investigative archive on the Martebo 'ghost lights'
On April 21, 2007, AFU received a big box full of audio and video tapes, documents, and photographic materials related to UFO-Sweden's investigation of the Martebo 'ghost lights' on the island of Gotland (in the Baltic).
Like the previous investigations in the Norwegian Hessdalen valley in the 1980s, this investigation was carried out with large numbers of investigators from UFO-Sweden, mostly during 1994 and 1995, and with Inga-Lill Wallin (below, right) as the diligent project co-ordinator. The recurring phenomenon was, with 90-95 % probability, identified as car headlights observed from afar along the long (3.5 kilometres) straight stretch of a local road.
The rich material (see upper left) has been ordered (and co-ordinated with previous AFU archival holdings on the project) by Anders Liljegren, into six archival volumes (upper right), with an inventory following here below.
volume
1
Martebo project (mainly during 1994 and 1995):
Documents and reports divided into 14 sections: 1) Reports, report forms, 2) Investigation in 1986 by Gunnar Senbom, 3) Research project Oct. 1994 by Inga-Lill Wallin and UFO-Sweden investigators, 4) Complementary reports by different investigators, 5) Experiment with car head-lights in Dec. 1994, 6) Further investigation project April 1995 by Wallin and UFO-Sweden, 7) Correspondence & organizational archive during 1994, 8) same for 1995, 9) Clippings during the pre-1994 period, 10) clippings during 1994, 11) clippings during 1995-96, 12) clippings during 1997-98, 13) clippings published 1999 and later, 14) photographs collection with negatives. All of the material is in Swedish.
2-4 Boxes with 33 audio tape cassettes related to the Martebo project; recordings from days and evenings spent at the spot near Martebo, 1994 and onwards. Boxes also include 15 tapes of radio broadcast interviews and three tapes with recorded public presentations.
5-6 Boxes with 8 VHS video tapes of presentations, TV broadcasts and school works on the Martebo phenomenon. Box 6 also includes one investigative tape of car headlight experiments and two CD discs with materials related to Martebo.
Sören Andersson translations archive
AFU recently received a thick archive of foreign UFO reports in the form of translations from prominent foreign UFO publications, like the Flying Saucer Review or the APRO Bulletin. Case reports from around were translated into Swedish by Sören Andersson, a member of the former Swedish UFO magazine UFO-Information, which ceased publication in 1995.
The translations, in loose-leaf format, have been ordered by year and date of the reported incident and sorted into nine file folders by AFU co-worker Tomas Ericsson.
The Alve Holmqvist archive
Received from the heirs of Alve Holmqvist in 2004. Sorted into 1 file folder by Clas Svahn (AFU).
In 2006 we also received two audio tapes of a lecture in Tranås - December 12, 1973 - by Alve Holmqvist. The lecture was recorded by ufologist Borgny Tingstedt, who also provided digitized audio tracks of the same lecture on three CD discs.
Volume
Description
1
Alve Holmqvist (1917-2003), ufologist from Malmö
Correspondence and personal file..
Alve Holmqvist was a top-level gymnast in his youth. He was one of the most active members of Malmö UFO-sällskap, later Malmö Interplanetariska Sällskap (MIS). He was also one of the original members, and the last editor, of Brevcirkeln Arcanum, a duplicated occult forum published from 1963 until 1994 with occasional UFO materials, such as essays translated from the Borderland Sciences Research Associates (BSRA) of California. (AFU has a complete collection of Brevcirkeln Arcanum, see: Magazine collection: Sweden).
The Alve Holmqvist file folder includes materials from MIS, Brevcirkeln Arcanum and other societies; texts for Holmqvist's slide shows; correspondence; photos, post cards, news clips, etc. With the donation came a small number of books, cataloged to our Book Collection.
Åke Franzén trying to catch one of the saucers (left) and in the historical Stonehenge environment (right).
The Åke Franzén archive
Åke Franzén (1936-1995) was a Swedish ufologist, most well-known for his original, ufological search through contemporary Swedish newspapers for stories about the Scandinavian ghost fliers (in the 1930s). Franzén was an early member of Swedish UFO societies. His interest was always spurred by the more fantastic aspects of ufology, bordering on science fiction. In September 1968 Åke wrote to New York journalist John A. Keel, having just read about the sightings of ’Mothman’, in West Virginia. Keel immediately wrote back, suggesting Franzén should visit some Stockholm library and scan through the newspapers for the 1930s.
Åke enthusiastically did so, but forgot to write down the exact details and to note the sources for the ghost flier stories he found and reported to Keel. Reprimanded for this by Keel, Åke was asked to return and take more careful notes. "This is very, very, very important", Keel wrote. "I do hope you will try to put aside your own conclusions and review those events objectively." In another letter: "I know that it is hard work to go through old newspapers and copy down these items but in the end it will prove more fruitful than going out and sitting on hilltops and waiting for the UFOs to land."
Franzén´;s translations became the raw material for a series of ghost flier articles in the Flying Saucer Review. Åke was one of the first ufologists to visit Dr. Tage Eriksson, who was the official Swedish Defence spokesman on UFOs, at his office.
Keel’s letters gave Åke new insights into his ’Mothman’ research and the young Swede decided to go to West Virginia to travel and meet the witnesses himself. He wrote Mary Hyre, one of the central persons in the West Virginia drama. The trip to the U.S. and West Virginia came about in the late summer of 1969 and cost Åke all his savings, more than 8.000 Swedish kronor.
In Point Pleasant, West Virginia - focal point of the ’Mothman’ syndrome - Åke met and fell in love with Linda Scarberry, one of the principal Point Pleasent witnesses. He spent five weeks traveling the area in the company of witnesses and local reporter Mary Hyre. All in all, Åke interviewed more than 30 witnesses. The sightings continued while he was there, but Åke was never able to see anything for himself.
Åke tried to get a job in the US to be able to stay with Linda. Failing this, he had to return to Sweden and his regular job as a civilian guardsman at the Swedish government’s offices. During the winter season of 1969-70 the intense communication between Linda and Åke (called "Honey" by Linda) was by letter, but in the spring of 1970 Linda's letters started to fade. A little more than a year after they had met, Linda finally wrote a farewell letter, stating she had met another man.
Franzén kept tabs on the Mothman and ghost flier affairs throughout the years, keeping up his contacts with John Keel, who visited Sweden and Åke's home in 1976, and with other researches he had met in the US. Åke also visited Warminster and Stonehenge to come closer to the strange phenomena of this world that always kept him wondering. He met Arthur Shuttlewood of Warminster fame, and Bob Rickard, publisher of the Fortean Times.
AFU’s files also holds Åke Franzén’s letters-to-the-editor published by several Swedish newspapers and books and magazines that he donated to us, or that came from Franzén’s home after his death (cataloged in our library). This includes a copy of "Operation Trojan Horse" signed by the author and much treasured by Franzén.
The Åke Franzén archive has been put in order by Sussie Andersson and Anders Liljegren.
Volume
Description
1
General correspondence 1968-1989.
Letters from John A. Keel, Gray Barker, Charles Bowen, Robert Rickard, Brent Raynes, Gunnar Lindberg (on the Eduard ’Billy’ Meier case), and others, sorted chronologically. Published letters-to-the-editor and other articles written by Franzén. Interview with Franzén published in Ufologen, issue #12. Photographs related to the life of Åke Franzén, taken by himself and by his friends.
2
Correspondence with Linda Scarberry, Point Pleasant, West Virginia, 1969-1970.
48 letters from Linda Scarberry to Åke Franzén. Linda Scarberry was one of the first and principal witnesses of ’Mothman’ on November 15, 1966.
