For centuries, people have testified to witnessing UFO sightings, including lights hovering over the sinking RMS Titanic, leaving researchers baffled.
“Some of the stars seemed so near to the surface of the water and their light so much more intense than ever before,” an RMS Titanic survivor wrote. “The stars really seemed to be alive and to be talking to us.”
According to Noe Torres, a McAllen Memorial librarian, and John LeMay — the authors of the new book, “Early 20th Century UFOs: American Sightings, 1900-1919” — this event could have been a major UFO sighting in the 20th century.
The book was released last month to commemorate the 109th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.
The book is the fourth in a series titled “The Real Cowboys and Aliens,” which received critical acclaim for its research on UFO sightings throughout U.S. history.
Asked why the authors decided to publish this series, Torres replied, “John and I were interested in UFO cases that were reported before modern aviation, before we had airplanes flying all over the skies, before we had jet aircrafts.”
The first three books cover UFO sightings and alien encounters from 1800 to 1899.
Aside from the UFO Titanic phenomenon, the book discusses multiple events, including the 1918 Spanish Flu.
A century before the COVID-19 pandemic, the world faced the Spanish Flu, a pandemic that left many dead.
In the book, Torres and LeMay discuss how Thomas Edison, an American scientist, became convinced that the flu pandemic came from something airborne from outer space. Edison allegedly believed this because he noticed that people who were isolated on islands became infected and died of the virus.
Torres and LeMay discuss many other eye witness events and sightings from the 20th century in the book.
Torres said he became interested in UFOs ever since his mother shared her strange encounter with him when he was a child.
“She told me this story when I was a kid in the 60’s, when I was in elementary school,” he said. “So I would rush to go read about UFOs. They interested me a lot so I read all the books.”
Torres said his career choice to become a librarian stemmed from his interest in books about UFOs. He has been a librarian for 30 years and has served 22 years at McAllen High.
“The fantastic thing about working in the schools is you have summers off. So, I do all of my writing and most of my public speaking in the summer months,” he said.
Prior to the pandemic, Torres said he regularly attended the annual Roswell UFO festival, the UFO capital of the world, and was scheduled to speak at the event last year. The McAllen librarian started the Edinburg UFO Festival nine years ago after being inspired by his experiences at Roswell.
Torres said he wanted something similar for people in the Rio Grande Valley.
Despite his 20 publications on UFOs, Torres said writing is more of a hobby than a career for him.
“I enjoy working with folks and helping them find the data that they need,” he said. “So, this is definitely just a side gig, but an interesting one.”
Torres wrote his first book in 2007 because he was interested in the 1947 Roswell UFO Incident. He wrote a book on the incident titled “Ultimate Guide to the Roswell UFO Crash,” which has been the top selling book among tourists visiting Roswell.
“I was interested in the aspect of Northern Mexico and Southern Texas,” Torres said. “Because I’ve always lived here I was interested. We hear of UFO [sightings] happening elsewhere in the United States and in the world, but what about Texas and South Texas?”
He said he wanted to write about the Latino UFO experience and use his books to validate others’ experiences.
“Originally I thought ‘Well I don’t know how many people in the Valley would even be interested in this topic’ and it turned out a lot,” Torres said. “Almost everybody I talked to has either had an experience themselves or they know somebody who has — a relative, a friend.”
Above all, his aim is to inform readers with his books and “make them realize that what they experience themselves is not something that is unusually tragic. It’s a shared, common experience among humans from decades back. … We don’t know why. We don’t know the purpose of these visitations, but they have been with us for a long time.”
Next for Torres is a fifth book in “The Real Cowboys and Aliens” series titled “UFOs of the Roaring 20s,” which is currently in the works and will cover UFO sightings in the 1920s.
All of his books are available for purchase on Amazon.com and via Roswellbooks.com.
