Originally posted by Skyfloating
One of the "mysterious accounts", quoted from Wikipedia. As far as I know, this first appeared 1940 in the National Geographic.
There is an account that in the 1940s a British embassy worker, Miss Lois Jessup, went on a tour of the Hypogeum and convinced a guide to let her
explore a 3ft. square "burial chamber" next to the floor of the lowest room in the last [3rd] sub-level. She claims that after squeezing through
this chamber she came into a large room; where she was standing there was a large cliff with a steep drop and the floor of the cavern could not be
seen. Across the cavern there was a small ledge with an opening in the wall. According the Ms. Jessup, a number of 'humanoid beings' that were
covered in white hair and hunched over came out of this opening. They raised their palms in her direction and a large gust of wind filled the cavern,
extinguishing the light of her candle. She then claimed that she felt something brush past her. When she went back to the Hypogeum on another
occasion, she was told no such tour guide had ever worked on the site. Sometime after Miss Jessup's first visit, a group of school children and their
teacher visited the Hypogeum on an outing and entered the same burial chamber, which then collapsed while they were inside. Search parties could not
conduct a thorough search for the children or their teacher due to the cave-in. The parents of the children claimed that, for weeks, they could hear
the voices of their children coming from under the ground in several parts of the island.[1][2]
This incident in the Hypogeum, really had me hooked.
Unfortunately, after chasing down the various web versions - including, Wiki, Phillip Coppens, and then getting my hands on a copy of the main source:
"Enigma Fantastique" By W. Gordon Allen, the story seems more dubious with each minute.
For example: the lady in question - Miss Lois Jessup - is not named in Allen's book, nor is she described as being Brisitsh Consulate staff. Indeed,
she is described as being a New Yorker, working in Education.
No mention about her involvement in the New York Saucer Information Bureau - a bureau that by the way only apparently existed between 1962 and 1965 -
some twenty plus years after Miss Lois Jessup was in Malta!
Coppens account of what happened at times also conflicts with the alleged "original" document cited by Allen in Enigma Fantastique.
So in summary, it seems we have:
* a woman who was either British, or American
* either was in Malta, or was apparently never there
* either worked for the British Embassy in Malta, or never did
* Was told about the missing school children a few days after her incident, by a friend who "called her" (strange that Malta had telephones in 1940)
after reading it in the news - or it never was in the news as stated by the "New Yorker" woman in her written account.
* a story that was either published by National Geographic in 1940, or was
published by an obscure publication at a possible much later date!
There were a lot more discrepancies. I won't detail them here. Suffice to say, my heart sank after initially having my curiosity piqued by that part
of your post.
No reflection on you Skyfloating

I loved the post regardless.

Just disappointing that that particular incident seems dubious at best.
Thanks again,
Matt
[edit on 1-7-2009 by mckyle]