Mysterious Manuscripts are books and other documents of supernatural importance, ready to be added to your Call of Cthulhu game. “Saucer Attack 1928! The Dunwich ‘Horror’” — by Bret Kramer, © 2012, illustrated by Vicente Rivera Catalá, © 2012 — appears in The Unspeakable Oath 21, available in PDF and in print with free PDF download.

“Saucer Attack 1928!: The Dunwich ‘Horror’” was written by Heath Berger and published in 1960 by Vast Cosmos Books. It’s an A-format paperback (4⅓” x 7”) in cheap newsprint; about 200 pages. The amateurish cover painting shows a glowing green flying saucer destroying a barn with a bolt of lightning; in the foreground a policeman is disintegrated by a similar bolt. Title and author are given on the cover and the spine. The work is poorly edited and contains frequent typographical errors and lacks source citations.

Saucer Attack 1928! can be found second-hand with a Luck roll and 1d4–1 days of searching, or immediately (perhaps at an online bookseller) if the Luck roll is impaled. Anyone with an exceptional interest in UFOlogy who makes a Luck roll may, at the Keeper’s discretion, already own it.

Skimming

This work claims to reinterpret the events of the so-called “Dunwich Horror” of 1928, a series of deaths and accidents near the village of Dunwich, Massachusetts.  The author, self-described “Leading Saucer Phenomena Expert” Heath Berger, claims that the “Horror” was actually a coordinated attack by alien beings in preparation for a future invasion — and that the U.S. government, in order to prevent panic, actively conspired to conceal the events of the “Horror.”  The work concludes by connecting the “Horror” to contemporary UFO encounters, suggesting the final invasion is drawing near.

No remains were ever located save fragments of human teeth and bones. There are two possibilities here. Either the aliens used atomic disintegrator rays or they used a matter transmission beam, causing the annihilation of Elmer Frye and his clan on Earth only to reassemble them elsewhere!

Thorough Reading

According to Berger, the events of the “Dunwich Horror” were a series of calculated attacks by an unknown alien race (or races) against an isolated human settlement with the purpose of testing local, state, and federal government reaction.

Berger presents an eclectic body of anecdotal evidence for earlier alien visitors in the region, drawing on Penacook and Abenaki myths regarding “Winged Ones” (flying spirits), standing stones (modeled on Stonehenge, “a well-known saucer landing site”) frequently adorned with unknown symbols, reports of weird lights and noises, and numerous missing persons.

The author then presents a chronological breakdown of the events of the “Horror,” beginning in early September with a barn collapse and cattle mutilation reports, through to the destruction of the Frye family farm and the deaths of five Massachusetts State Police officers. Berger cites multiple interviews with unnamed “eye-witnesses” including Dunwich residents and a Professor Armitage connected to Miskatonic University.

Berger reports further mysterious disappearances, weird lights, and sounds from the hills after the “Horror,” as well as an eerie “white humanoid” spotted near Cold Springs Glen, epicenter of the attacks. In the years afterwards the village, already in decline, was disincorporated and the area taken over by neighboring towns, much of it being purchased by the state in creating Bishop State Park. Berger regards this as proof of official collusion in the cover-up.

The final section of the book compares the events of the “Horror” to the Hopkinsville Goblins, the Flatwoods Monster, the Roswell crash, and a host of lesser known close encounters. He argues the increasing frequency of contact between humans and aliens is clear proof that the attacks begun in 1928 (if not earlier) are only increasing, suggesting that the time for invasion is close at hand.

Research

A single Library Use roll provides a short summary of the so-called “Dunwich Horror” of the summer and fall of 1928, a hoax perpetrated by an Aylesbury, Massachusetts newspaper man who alleged it was caused by an “invisible elephant.” A series of several moonshine still explosions, wild dog attacks on cattle, and the accidental deaths of several state patrol officers were misinterpreted by locals as a supernatural event. The reporter sold the story as a piece of “hillbilly humor” to the Associated Press, who distributed it more widely.  It is viewed as a precursor to the panic associated with Orson Welles’ 1938 War of the Worlds broadcast.

The basic details of the “Horror” as presented by Berger can be confirmed with additional research. Curiously, while Berger’s conclusions about alien attack are clearly off-base, his underlying questioning of the official account of the “Horror” is much harder to dismiss. His basic research showing the Dunwich area to be unusual (to say the least), and the catalog of disappearances, weird phenomena, and the holes in Dr. Armitage’s account are very solid.

Some information on Berger himself can be uncovered with a separate Library Use roll.  Heath Berger, born Hiram Berkowitz (1924-1971), was an American writer of pulp fiction. Forgotten by all but the most well-read aficionados of the genre, he is considered at best a prolific but ultimately derivative author.

It is clear then that what Reverend Hoadely observed was not the “voluble distributions wrought by demonick forces” but instead the sounds wrought by the mechanism of the alien outpost, perhaps excavating saucer hangars and laboratories. Note that Dunwich lacks the limestone karst traditionally associated with cave formation yet there are several caves noted on the 1919 Geological Survey. Might these not be of unnatural formation? Large subterranean structures would account for the magnetic anomalies reported in the region.

Statistics

Saucer Attack 1928!: The Dunwich “Horror.” English. No SAN cost. Cthulhu Mythos +0 percentiles. (However, if additional research validates Berger’s underlying claims they are worth +1 Cthulhu Mythos and 1/1D3 SAN loss.) Occult +4 percentiles. Average 3 days to study and comprehend. Spells: None.

Using Saucer Attack! In Your Campaign

In a modern game “Saucer Attack!” could be the spur for an investigation into the events of the Dunwich Horror, either by the Investigators or by an NPC. Keepers might make use of this work as an imperfect source of information about the Dunwich Horror. Alternately it might be a curio uncovered among the effects of an NPC with an interest in UFOlogy or the paranormal.  Finally, it might be used to torture players familiar with Lovecraft’s fiction, especially if the work is discovered and examined by one who is unfamiliar with the stories.

Armitage claims that the “Horror” was noting but mass hysteria. Why then take a sabbatical afterwards? What of his government ties? Why had the late Wilbur Whately — known for his curious walk and his remarkable height; the same man whose own grandfather bought many head of cattle which were never seen again, and was said to haunt the very stone-topped mountains discussed previously — why had he called upon this “innocent” academic just before the “Horror” began? Was it to warn him? Was Armitage the government’s alien liaison?

Ready for more alien horrors from beyond time and space?

This manuscript and more available in

The Unspeakable Oath, Issue 21!