Gary Withington
| Gary Withington | |
|---|---|
| Known for | Jonathan Reed forest incident |
| Experience date(s) | October 1996 |
| Experience location(s) | Seattle, Washington |
| Experience type(s) | Claimed firsthand sighting and handling of the being Freddie |
| Beings encountered | Freddie |
Gary Withington is, according to contactee Jonathan Reed, the close friend and companion who took part in the Jonathan Reed forest incident of October 1996 and helped Reed handle and conceal the body of the non-human intelligent being recovered there. In Reed's telling Gary was his principal companion through the nine days the body was kept — naming the being "Freddie," contacting MUFON in search of help, and operating the camera for the close-up photographs of it — before disappearing after the ninth day of the event.
Gary is known almost entirely through Reed's own testimony and footage; no independent record of him outside the case has surfaced, and the account of what became of him comes only from Reed, who told it differently in his earlier and later interviews. The sole external trace is a Northwest Museum of Legends and Lore investigation, which reported that Reed did once have a friend named Gary who was an early victim of HIV.
The 1996 incident
After incapacitating the being alone in the forest, Reed says he returned home and contacted Gary — whom he called his "very best friend" — who phoned back and came over within minutes but was initially skeptical, not believing the account until Reed showed him the body. Gary coined the nickname "Freddie" for the being, saying it reminded him of one of his old bosses, and after seeing the body face-to-face in the garage was, in Reed's words, "the first one to say... this isn't human."
During the days the body was kept at the house, Gary took an active part. He telephoned MUFON in Seattle in search of help, operated the camera for the close-up photographs of the body, some of which also show Reed's own hands and arms, and the following day returned with Reed to the forest to look for the obelisk, finding the area undisturbed and the obelisk gone.
Disappearance
Reed has said that the last time he saw Gary was the ninth day of the event, and that he heard nothing from him afterward — even Gary's parents, who lived outside the area, never heard from him again. In a later account Reed described a different fate, saying that Gary had been severely beaten and was unable to speak: "He looked like a survivor of Auschwitz when I saw him."
The Northwest Museum of Legends and Lore investigation found no trace of Gary apart from a single fact: that Reed had once had a friend by that name, an early victim of HIV.
See also
References
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