She spent two years as a model in California, then another year runway modeling high fashion in New York with some of the world’s most famous designers. She returned to Tulsa for her Father’s funeral and soon met and married Bob Bartholic, a local artist of note. During the years when they were rearing their four children, she dabbled in art, mostly because of Bob’s interest, she says.
Batholic gives a very good imitation of a blonde Lucille Ball. She has talent in many fields and what she calls her untutored paintings and sculptures, are strikingly arresting. Her fluttery behavior, her tinkling laughter and her pretty face, often succeed in hiding her sharp intelligence from those who don’t know her well.
“I don’t do much with art, now,” she says, “UFO research is my whole life.” She admits she has always been interested in the subject of UFO’s because of her own abduction experiences as an infant in St. Louis. As an adult she slipped into the field of UFO research without planning at all to do so.
After her children were all in school she opened an art gallery in Tulsa’s downtown area and was soon asked to host an art show on cable. The TV show was quite successful and visiting artists were often asked to appear to be interviewed by Bartholic.
“Once disciples of two people who called themselves ‘Bo’ and ‘Peep’ came to my Gallery and I asked them if they would like to appear on my television show on Channel 25.” While Bartholic’s show featuring the strangers was interesting and quite well received, her boss at the television station had reservations about it all. He told her the show was supposed to focus on art, not on that UFO craziness.
“My friend, Bill Blair, told me to come on over to his studio and he would help me make a tape of the two disciples since my boss was being a hard head. We did that and made several hours of tape with the Bo and Peep people.”
Bo and Peep, later to be known as “Do” and “Ti,” the leaders of the recently in—the—news, Heaven’s Gate cult, set up a lecture series at the Tulsa City-County Library and they asked Bartholic to host. The two even asked Bartholic to be on hand when they (Bo and Peep) were taken onto a space ship which was to come and pick them up somewhere near Keystone Dam in Oklahoma.
“I was really sorry we weren’t able to get that,” Bartholic’s laugh tinkles across the room. “They also told us we must never, never, ever, show the last five minutes of the last tape we did of them, not to anybody.” Her laughter sounds again. “Of course, we showed it without hesitation when the famous UFO investigator, Jacque Vallee came to see our videos. During that forbidden five minutes a huge storm manifested itself all around us during the whole five minutes, then stopped the moment the tape was over. Maybe they were telling us something?”
Bartholic went on to say that the second time they showed the five minutes of forbidden tape, Blair’s TV set caught on fire.
“My research began with hosting the Heaven’s Gate people before they were Heaven’s Gate. I went on to work for seven years with Jacque Vallee. He was portrayed as the French scientist in the movie, ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind.’ Vallee and I traveled around the U.S. and around the world researching cattle mutilations, UFO sightings and abductions. A series of horrible accidents caused our split. We both thought the accidents to be caused directly by our dangerous research into the other world happenings with UFO5. I believe Vallee was in my life to act as my teacher for what has become my real career.”
Now, Bartholic works alone, except for her clients, the people who have had experiences that they have asked her to investigate. She has appeared in many books written by her clients about their experiences.
“I don’t have any choice, I have to continue this work,” Bartholic explains, her gaze lowered. “My mother is simply horrified by the whole idea and she totally rejects the reality of my experiences and my life.” Bartholic’s mother still lives in Tulsa but Bartholic doesn’t share stories of her investigative work with her parent. “In a way I agree with her.” The tinkling laugh sounds. “Nobody in their right mind would ever get into UFO—alien research. It’s far too dangerous. Within the past year and a half, at least seven researchers whom I knew well, have met untimely deaths. When you step forward with the kind of information we handle, you’re taking your life in your hands.”
According to Bartholic, aliens start by abducting the very young, then they continue to abduct and experiment with the chosen ones for the rest of that particular child’s life. Their memories of the abductions are shrouded so the UFO subject never knows exactly what is going on, only that he or she has had some sort of strange experience that rises to trouble the surface of his or her mind at unexpected moments.
Any advice for readers? Bartholic shrugged, then leaned forward, her voice quiet. “When your kids keep saying monsters are coming into their rooms at night... pay attention! They probably are.”
Peggy Fielding
Peggy Fielding is a writer and a teacher of writers She lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma and teaches writing at Tulsa Community College. She has degrees from Central State University in Edmond, Oklahoma and the University of Santo Tomas in Manila, R.P.
She is the author of several nonfiction books, two novels and hundreds of short stories and articles in local and national magazines.
You may contact Fielding at Box 50347, Tulsa, OK 74150 or call her at (918) 834-6365 or e-mail her at [email protected] or visit her web site at http://www.peggyfielding.com.
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Barbara: The Story of a UFO Investigator Page 17
