"12 O'Clock High! The Captain Thomas Mantell Jr. UFO Chase" by Dewey Edwards

I have mentioned Dewey Edwards and his books before (here) and I was able to meet him last October at the Bell Witch Festival in Adams Tennessee.  I also brought up his OTHER book on UFOs and the famous Mantell Incident here.  Well, I picked up his most recent offering, "12 O'Clock High!  The Captain Thomas Mantell Jr. UFO Chase" and I definitely wanted to cover that one too after reading it.

Dewey is putting out a ton of material covering strange events (cryptids, ghosts, UFOs) in the western Kentucky and north western Tennessee area, and his works have a very complete feel to me.  When he puts a book out, he is including the basic story of the event, newspaper articles, and other documents.  

His slightly earlier book on UFOs, "Eye in the Sky" is over 250 pages covering major UFO events with the first 120 pages or so devoted to the Mantell UFO Incident.  With his newer book, "12 O"Clock High" the 400 plus page volume is exclusively devoted to Thomas Mantell and this strange event that went down in Franklin Kentucky.

Obviously, there is some ground covered in both books, but I am glad I have each book on my bookshelf.  "Eye in the Sky" would be a great intro to UFO cases for someone just getting interested in the topic.  The classics (Travis Walton, the Hills, Kelly Kentucky) are covered, and Dewey covers some new ground too with some more obscure cases.

"12 O'Clock High" is an OCD deep dive covering Mantell.  Edwards work involves witnesses (including an anonymous one) and family members.  Photos from the UFO chase and crash are included.  I personally appreciated the inclusion of information on burial sites of some of the people involved (Louisville's Cave Hill Cemetery is mentioned!).

The book included sworn accounts from witnesses and others who reported seeing something in the sky that day.  Early newspaper articles are included (with some interesting observations early on).

In an effort to include a  wide variety of articles and views on the event, Dewey even includes an article that he describes as "way out there" (the article makes a strange argument that Mantell survived the crash).

This is just a fun (and complete) book covering Mantell....  Also, author Dewey Edwards is easy to find on the facebook.  Look him up and order a signed copy directly from him!