Lavonia, Georgia: Top-shaped object passes over car, oily residue, driver's arms burn

At 1:00 a.m. on June 30, 1964, Beauford E. Parham was driving near Lavonia, Georgia, on his way back from a business trip when a brilliant light moving toward his car at a 45-degree angle suddenly appeared right in front of his headlights, no more than 5 feet away and a foot above the ground. Shaped like a giant top with a sharp, steeple-like cone on its top midsection, the amber-colored object emitted a 'hissing sound like a million snakes.' It moved above his car, leaving a strong odor of embalming fluid and a gaseous vapor that left an oily substance on the car, even after repeated washings; after several passes it started spinning and took off vertically. Parham then noticed that his arms were beginning to burn. He reported the sighting to the mayor of Lavonia and then to personnel at Anderson Regional Airport in South Carolina, where local FAA officials checked his car for radiation and got readings from the oily stains and from both his arms from the shoulder down. The account follows the entry in George M. Eberhart's chronology UFOs and Intelligence (CUFOS) and the sources cited there; it is not an independent determination by From Beyond Space.