Exploring the story behind these mysterious sightings and the possibility of UFOs and government coverups, the Lubbock Lights. Ad-free episodes & bonus content: redwebpod.com In 1951, strange lights were seen darting across the skies of Lubbock, Texas—witnessed by dozens, including scientists and military personnel. The case drew national attention and became one of the few sightings labeled “unknown” by Project Blue Book. Today, we investigate the mystery of the Lubbock Lights. Our sponsors: Shady Rays - Go to http://shadyrays.com and use code REDWEB to get 35% off polarized sunglasses. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What happened during the Lubbock Lights sighting?
Welcome back, Task Force, to another episode of Red Web, the podcast all about unsolved mysteries, true crime, and the paranormal. I am your resident mystery enthusiast, Trevor Collins, and joining me hearing this case for the very first time, Alfredo Diaz. Talk about lights in the sky.
I already know, man. Aliens. Here we go. It's gotta be.
the thing is the thing the thing is though because obviously we want to believe we want to be true yes yes hit hit me with it and i just know one theories you'd be like some experimental like aircraft i'm like god get that out of here man like give me hope give me something you know what i mean don't make it make sense to me in the sense that like it's a government thing you know what i'm saying yeah yeah like ah
that's probably what's going to make the most sense, but I hate it.
I hate it every time.
I hate it. And then also my mind instantly goes to the news footage that was in the movie signs when I think it was like Brazil or Spain or something like that, when they had just the lights show up above the city at night and then how they're just like tons of lights showed up above the city just hours ago and everyone just like filming and stuff.
And then how Merrill, his brother, Mel Gibson's brother, Joaquin Phoenix in that movie was like in the closet. And then he was like watching the video and it was like daytime and they're like, the lights are gone, but they're still there because we saw a bird fly through the air and like hit like an invisible wall and then like fell to the ground. They found it and it cracked his neck.
And I was like, oh, it just gives you jitters, dude. It just gives you jitters. You know, like that's how it would go down.
But then also it's like, well, that's an invasion. Yeah, a little bit. That's a low key. That's a high key invasion. They're cloaked and they're up there, but they have lights on for some reason, which is exposing their, you know, where they are.
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Chapter 2: Who were the witnesses of the Lubbock Lights?
I forgot about that whole scene until you walked me through it. I just remember, vamos, children, and then the walk through the birthday party.
Yeah, that's good moments. Good moments in the movie.
Very good. Man, I watched that a lot as a kid. I feel like I desensitized myself because there was something. Again, this is why we do this show. There's something just fascinating about the other worlds out there. Are there aliens? Are there ghosts? There definitely is Bigfoot, but where is he? You know, like all that sort of stuff. Putting words in your mouth, love to do it. So here's the thing.
We have a lot going on here at HQ. Red Web is busy this week. If you don't know Task Force, right now, as of this week moving forward, we now officially have a video version of this podcast Also this week, we have Break Room live recording on Wednesday, 6 p.m. Central Time, so be there.
Those are always recorded, and those always come back out a few weeks after the fact, so another one's coming out from March this week. We also have the Veronica Movie Club this Friday. If you love paranormal stories, if you love possession, you're gonna love it. And of course... The discount codes. There's lots happening. So go to Red Web Pod. Check it out. Get yourself in there.
Become an official member of the task force. And genuinely, it is the number one way to support this podcast. So with that, I want to shout out a few task force members. We got Ashken Bishop, a buff scientist in their own mind. They got a rippling brain on them. And of course, the squonks of the month. We have Andy Schrock, Clint from PS3, G, and Zarathustra, just to name a few.
They're on their hit list now, is that what's happening? Oh, that means they're on. They're on. They're on.
I'm just going to just start cutting out little pictures, like outlines of squonks, just sticking them on my wall with names.
Okay. You know what? We can do that. We can do that. That maybe will desensitize you, so you'll stop hunting, you'll see the picture, and then you'll be like, you know what? I'm satiated. The hunt will never stop. The hunger never stops. Okay, listen. The Lubbock Lights. There's a lot to discuss. I want to dive in right away.
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Chapter 3: What theories exist about the Lubbock Lights?
After about an hour later, they saw another semicircle of lights and this time the professors were ready with pocket watches and they were going to time their movements. They were ready for this on night one. Oh, yeah.
I mean, they're big brain buff scientists. You understand? So, I mean, just the rap sheet that they had between all of them is nuts. And so it also is, it's nice to know, you know, it's not just like, oh, it's just a pedestrian looking up at the sky. It's like, okay, well, these guys, you know, they're masters in their craft. They studied the scientists.
They're studying the sciences and all that kind of stuff. Like, I wouldn't know what I'm looking at, you know.
Listen, shooting stars come by their streaks, maybe a couple streaks. They're seeing a semi arc formation that is a little too clean. And so they're like, well, that was odd. Let's be ready in case that happens again so we can really analyze it. So what they did was one of the group watched the lights while two others timed it.
And I like this because now you have two different measurements of time that you can kind of average between. It's a little bit more accurate. And so somebody got their eyes locked on it. And this is how they were able to kind of time this. And we'll talk about the speed that they calculated from this.
But they basically said, all right, let's look at how long it's visible, time that, see where it moves from and estimate whatever we can from this. Now, in both the sightings, the formation of the lights were identical in size and color, making no sound as they flew the same pattern. Interesting. The same pattern from north to south.
the crew purported that there were about 15 to 30 lights in this semicircle formation and while the formation was clear each light itself was not perfectly lined up by the other so basically it looked like a perfect semicircle right when you looked at it from afar from a whole picture view but each of them kind of had some variation between them is what it sounds like and when they described the lights they said they had like a bluish green color
And it's kind of hard to decipher. They said they're not quite clear, but they're not fully opaque. So somewhere in between, they had a round shape, but not perfectly round. A little bit like oval. And each light, now this is what throws me. Each light was a bit larger than the visible stars that night. Now, obviously, we've all looked up at the night sky. Stars are tiny.
Yeah, but the thing... So my thing is, like, as you're telling me this and describing to me what they were describing... It's like, okay, well, if they weren't lined up perfectly, then maybe it isn't some type of craft or machine, because then it would be. But then also you're like, well, the lights are bigger than the stars.
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Chapter 4: How did the Lubbock Lights get their name?
In other words, this semicircle or V formation, whatever it might've been, of 15 to 30 lights spanned more than half of the night sky. So if you're looking up, you know, of the whole sky. Yeah. Whatever this arc is of these kind of tiny dots, this arc, it kind of gives you a really strong visual of what we're talking about.
Also, that's terrifying.
Yeah.
It's just so wide. yeah and then from there you go all right it's not like someone playing a prank and strapping a bunch of little flashlights onto some like ducky legs or some goose legs or swans oh but that's a good idea it's a pretty good idea we're gonna see the austin lights and it's just gonna be a bunch of ducks with lights on
yeah yeah so it's not like something kind of like that but then like yeah then you start to think okay military aircraft something they're experimenting with not that wide could be right it just makes it less so and so then you see your mind starts to wander into the realm of like the possibility that's the wingspan must be that's so big It's huge.
That's the thing.
It's terrifying. It's like mothership stuff.
Exactly. This is a mothership coming down, dude. It would be genuinely terrifying. And we'll talk about that. One of the professors that ended up joining them one night... I'll talk about Mr. Heinemann out here. He was a skeptic. And he saw it that night. And he was shaking in his boots afterwards.
So...
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Chapter 5: What were the scientific investigations into the Lubbock Lights?
Jesus.
So that's kind of what that means. 30 degrees of an arc per second. Now, of course, without the altitude of whatever this thing is, it's nearly impossible to figure out a velocity. So I plugged in some altitudes that are very common to then reverse calculate using 30 degrees of an arc per second what that speed would be. At a plane altitude, that's 38,000 miles per hour.
If we're talking about low Earth orbit, that altitude, it would be 471,000 miles per hour. So... My mind wants to say whatever this thing is, is it's lower than those things. Jesus.
But then. Yeah. We didn't hear it. It's just because no one's talking about any audible cues. What could this be? Man, if this is a goose with a light, it's cooking.
Yeah. Someone just slingshot that thing across the night sky, dude. Yeah. I do want to say, though, if it was at the altitude of... And this is not knowing the altitude of an average shooting star, but I will say that these speeds aren't too far out of the realm of a meteor coming down, so it could still be part of this meteor shower.
I think what stands out, though, is the fact that it's repeatable, consistent, north to south in the same area every time,
and also the grouping of it the way it's grouped and formed yeah now on september 1st the group then watched for the lubbock lights and this time they were joined by other texas tech professors on that night there were four more instances of these mysterious lights however at 12 17 a.m
This time the lights were directly overhead when they reappeared, not in the northeast where they normally saw them moving north to south. Instead, they were literally right above the professors who have not only observed these for days, reported on them publicly. So it almost felt like it was responding in some way, adding some more intrigue to this story.
1951.
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Chapter 6: What were the photographs taken of the Lubbock Lights?
Ain't gonna be no drone show. It just keeps adding more mystery to it. I just can't. I know. And then also I'm like, well, what if it was a balloon? The speed would be too fast. And so. And also like uniform, the fact that balloons would kind of like. Yeah, wave around.
Bobble around.
Also, they're going that fast. They're not going that fast that they are. It's also just like, I don't know. I feel like it'd be shredded in a way. I don't know man. I'm intrigued. I have no. I have no idea like what the more that one of the few times for like a extraterrestrial possible alien type UFO thing. I don't know where these theories are going to go, so I'm very excited.
Yeah, there's one that I'm very intrigued by. You're not too far off of it with your gut instinct. Again, you see the future five seconds at a time. I love to see it. But also it's really, really interesting just how kind of confusing all these eyewitness accounts are because they're uniform, but they don't really point to an obvious answer.
And so I'll be very curious to hear your thoughts as the theories roll around. But this is the one where I want to talk about a man, one of the members of this group, E. Richard Heinemann. He became terrified when he saw these lights, despite the fact that he was so extremely skeptical about the whole thing. So when he joined that night at 1217, he saw this thing directly above.
And whether it was the size, the sudden appearance of it, or just the like the awesomeness of it again, it I think this speaks to just how wild it would have been to see in person. As a result, they called this particular instance Heinemann's Horror. The professors continued to witness these strange lights in the night sky between 9pm and midnight, until early September when they vanished.
In fact, the group repeatedly saw lights at around 9.20pm, and it was so consistent that they decided to call those the old 9.20. That's how repeatable some of these lights were, which is really interesting. So again, Meteor Shower are consistent, but not to the minute, right? In total, the group considers there to be 12 official sightings of the Lubbock Lights.
These official sightings were instances where at least two or more of the professors from the original group had seen and spotted these lights. And I do appreciate that, too. There's a little bit of micro peer review happening here where it can't just be, well, Bob saw one and then Jimmy saw one. It's from the original group when it first happened. At least two of those four go, no, we saw this.
Let's document it. And I say the original group because over the nights, like I said, there were other various members of the faculty who joined in, Texas Tech faculty like Dr. Grayson Mead or Dr. John Brand, just to name a few others.
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Chapter 7: How did Project Blue Book investigate the Lubbock Lights?
and if you're more right and if you're willing to have like a bunch of other people come into as well then it's like more than likely you're not trying to do this whole scam thing right or just like sure yeah and you come in too and you come in you join us it's like all right well they're they're genuinely genuine about what they're doing
Right. Every new person we bring in, we got to sell another 5,000 books. So you better be worth it, right? Like it's always worth having a little ounce of skepticism and maybe cynicism because we have seen that so much to your point that these stories can be made up or exaggerated to make a point or to sell a book or whatever the end goal is sometimes to get attention.
And who knows, maybe they're doing some study that they need research or grant money for. And that's all things worth considering. But yeah, I agree. I appreciate that they brought in other minds, other people. And ultimately, the group could not identify the source of these lights. And thus, their story, as intriguing as it was, made it all the way to Project Blue Book.
A program that we talked about just a few weeks ago, Task Force, if you want to check it out, we dive into what Project Blue Book is, various cases they covered, but ultimately it was the United States' official answer to studying this sudden, almost spontaneous arrival of lights like this.
You know, at the turn of the decade here at 1951, we're still in the early days of suddenly a lot of mysterious lights showing up. And so the government's like, all right, just for the sake of national security, the Cold War going on, a lot of other things. Let's look into this. Is it aliens? Is it something mundane? Something in between? But yeah, very interesting.
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