|
My experience with Ted Owens started in
1979, when Owens contacted me at the
Enquirer. He portrayed himself
as "PK Man" and said he could predict events and control the world's weather.
Owens claims were met with skepticism by both myself and my editor, Don
Horine, and I told Owens so.
"He Will Regret the Day He Laughed At Me" Angered, Owens responded by saying that he could prove his abilities. He also said he could produce UFOs on demand. Horine gave Owens a chance to produce UFO sightings on demand and we arranged to have him and several witnesses including a scientist meet for an all night vigil. The bottom line was that Owens said UFOs were seen. One witness agreed, but two others said they did not see them. We did not run a story. Owens, who had wanted a forum for his predictions, was very angry and felt betrayed by the Enquirer and particularly by Don Horine, the editor. Owens called me and made the following predictions for the year: "I will bring three June hurricanes to life and bring one right over the Enquirer. Furthermore, I will use my PK powers to destroy Don Horine's life for crossing me. He will lose his job, and his wife and he will regret the day he laughed at me." According to National Weather Service records,
June hurricanes occur extremely rarely, perhaps one every fifty years or
so. The Bahamians have a saying, "June too soon," but that year three hurricanes
formed before June was over and one made landfall over West Palm Beach
and Lantana. Furthermore, editor Don Horine's life became a shambles. He
was fired from the Enquirer. I heard his wife left him and he was
left jobless. He eventually was hired by the Palm Beach Post for
a fraction of his Enquirer salary. He is still with the Post
today.
"Another Coincidence for Owens" Owens and I then spoke several times and he liked me enough to take me into his confidence. Over a more than five year period, Owens phoned me several times a week, usually after midnight and predicted dire events about to happen including earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados and violent events worldwide. Within two days or so, I always received the same prediction via letter, often accompanied with some strange drawing of unknown symbols and signed "PK Man." The predictions usually were about five to ten days before actual events took place. When they did, I very often heard them on the news and dozens of times told my wife, "Another coincidence for Owens." When the event took place, he copied the news stories and sent me copies. The pattern was: (1) Predict by phone, (2) Send written backup. (3) Send news clips of the event predicted. As much as I didn't want to believe Owens, the long string of coincidences went on. At one time, I estimated that - with some flexibility on the matter of timing - Owens' predictions were about 80% accurate. In September 1979, when Hurricane David was heading for West Palm Beach, I spoke to Owens about 2 a.m. the night of the approach. I told him thousands of people would be made homeless because the "manufactured" hurricane was bearing down on us. In an unusual softening, he said something like, "I don't want to hurt you or your family or others needlessly. I'll ask my SIs to turn the cane away from you. Keep watching the TV to see what happens." By five in the morning, the local TV weatherman had the National Hurricane Center on the air with new coordinates for the storm. It had suddenly stopped moving toward West Palm and was veering northward away from us. We got fringe winds but nothing more. Owens called about seven and said, "That was for you Wayne." I didn't believe it was possible but the series of events went as Owens said they would. Another aspect of Owens' powers, somewhat more down to earth, was Owens professed ability to influence NFL games as they were being played. On one occasion, I was with my friend, John Sabo, PhD, and told him of Owen's boast. We called Ted and Sabo asked him to help the underdog team that was about to play that afternoon. Coincidence or not, the stronger team had a terrible day, lost the game in a big upset and the coach in the post game interview said something like, "It was as if we were hexed Everything went wrong." Sabo and I knew it was not possible. But it happened just as we asked of Owens I logged that information into the delusional category and didn't worry about it. In the next hurricane season, Florida was again threatened by a large storm bearing down on us and Owens called and warned me to get to high ground. I informed him them was no high ground here. "I'll move it away from you Wayne because you are the only one to believe in me," That hurricane devastated Charleston, SC the next day. During the last storm season I had
contact with Owens, he told me he would keep Florida clear of "killer canes,"
True to his word, the hurricanes went north of us, south, turned into the
open Atlantic and dissipated with sheer winds blowing their tops off.
The Last Days of the PK Man Suddenly Owens went silent for months, then in 1987 he called me from upstate NY and said he had moved his family there to be picked up by the UFOs. He sent me several drawing his son Beau had made of vertically long, non-saucerlike UFO that were hovering over his rural home - as well as newspaper clippings reporting local UFO sightings and an affidavit to the same effect from a neighbor. There was a flurry of calls and then one last one whose contents were very strange and I choose to kept private. Suffice it to say, the predictions of that last conversation changed my life and caused me to wonder where science leaves off and the unknown begins. My wife was witness to the events that followed and shares with me the wonderment of it. I never heard from Ted Owens again after
that last call.
Biography of Wayne Grover
Wayne Grover was the primary military historian
for the B-52 bombing missions over Vietnam, staged out Of Utapau Royal
Thai Air Base in 1966-67. In 1978, he took a position as a national news
correspondent with the NationalEnquirer.
That position is current.
Grover is the author of four nonfiction children's books about dolphins
and eagles.
Return to William James Bookstore
|