UFO abduction figure Charles E. Hickson Sr. dies at 80 in Ocean Springs, Mississippi

GAUTIER, Miss. (AP) -- Charles E. Hickson Sr., whose claimed 1973 abduction by a UFO drew widespread attention, has died.

Hickson and Calvin Parker were fishing on the Pascagoula River in southern Mississippi on Oct. 11, 1973, when the pair said they were abducted and probed by aliens, and then released from their spacecraft.

Hickson, then 42, and Parker, then 19, feared their story would be met with ridicule, and initially decided to keep quiet. Eventually they told a news reporter.

Hickson died Friday in Ocean Springs, according to officials with O’Bryant-O’Keefe Funeral Home in Gautier. He was 80.

After reporting the abduction, Hickson and Parker passed lie detector tests and were even questioned under hypnosis.

Investigators are on record saying the pair’s story never wavered.