Karla Turner and the U.S. Postal Service
From Greg Bishop
www.excludedmiddle.com
In 1993, I began corresponding with Karla Turner, and in 1994, I interviewed her at the MUFON convention in Austin for my magazine, The Excluded Middle. Her headstrong attitude and willingness to talk about other episodes of strangeness throughout her life made me a fan and later, a friend. As many of you know, her husband Elton had experienced some unexplainable things in his life as well, which was only increased when he met Karla. A friend of mine visited them a few times at their home in Arkansas, and had told me of personal nighttime disturbances as well as a group sighting of objects or "forces" high in the trees on the property, which was apparently a common occurrence there. Karla and I talked often and corresponded through the mail as well. I noticed that most if not all of the envelopes and packages I received from Karla showed evidence of tampering. Some were completely destroyed and placed in plastic bags by postal employees, with the usual apologies and explanations about mangling by automated systems, etc. Envelopes were often torn or cut open. It is of course easy to open and reseal mail, so Karla and I theorized that whoever was doing this wanted us to know about their interest. We had no explanation for it, we only knew that someone or group of people were putting their particular signature on mail that passed between us, although little or none of anything I sent to her was similarly affected. Once she began writing "SEALED BY SENDER" and placing tape over the flap, the tampering stopped. The only other correspondent with whom I experienced mail tampering was a cattle mutilation researcher from the east coast. Much our correspondence was either opened (sometimes to the point of nearly destroying the contents) or never arrived. An interesting coda to this episode was that he was scheduled to appear on a radio show that I co-hosted, and had already spoken quite openly about his studies and a larger picture of what might be behind the phenomenon. He called me a couple of days before his second appearance to say that he was becoming increasingly disturbed by his research findings and was getting out of mutilation study altogether. To her enduring credit, Karla Turner had no such reservations, and continued her courageous research until her untimely death. |
