Paul Villa

Early Life and Childhood Contact

Apolinar (Paul) Villa was born in 1916 in New Mexico, of mixed Native American, Spanish, German, and Scottish heritage. According to his own account, his contact with extraterrestrial intelligence began at age five, when he first received telepathic communications from beings he would later identify as originating from the Coma Berenices star system. For decades, these contacts remained private and largely undocumented. Villa worked as a mechanic in Albuquerque, maintaining a quiet civilian life despite his extraordinary claims.

Los Angeles Contact and Precursor

In the early 1950s, while employed by the Department of Water and Power in Los Angeles, Villa received more direct contact. The beings communicated to him telepathically that they would eventually permit him to photograph their craft, but only after proper preparation and at designated times and locations. This ten-year precursor period set the stage for what would become the most documented phase of his contact experience—a series of prearranged photographic sessions beginning in 1963.

The Photographic Campaign

Starting in 1963, Villa began receiving telepathic messages alerting him to drive to specific locations near Albuquerque—particularly near Peralta, about 15 miles south of the city—where craft from his Coma Berenices contacts would appear. On June 16, 1963, Villa documented what he claimed was a massive disc-shaped craft approximately 160–170 feet in diameter, hovering at low altitude and presenting itself deliberately for photography. Over the course of more than a decade, Villa accumulated over 50 photographs of various spacecraft, taken with a Japanese-made Rokuoh-sha folding camera equipped with a 75mm f4.6 lens using 120 Kodacolor film.

The photographs show silvery, disc-shaped objects with apparent window features, sometimes framed by desert vegetation and occasionally with Villa's pickup truck visible in the foreground, lending context to scale and location. The craft sizes ranged from a few feet across to well over 30 feet in diameter, suggesting both small scout vessels and larger motherships. Villa described the beings as allowing him to document their presence with remarkable patience, hovering the craft at various altitudes and distances to facilitate clear photography.

Controversy and Skepticism

Almost immediately, skeptics questioned Villa's photographs, claiming they showed obvious signs of fabrication. Computer image enhancement analysis offered by skeptics purported to prove the photographs were hoaxes, though the validity of their enhancements remains contested. Despite these challenges, Villa's case attracted serious attention from within the UFO research community. Lt. Colonel Wendelle C. Stevens, a respected military figure who maintained one of the world's largest collections of UFO photographs, became convinced enough of Villa's credibility to meet with him personally. Stevens later co-authored several books documenting Villa's contacts and photographs.

Later Years and Disappearance

By the late 1970s, Villa's public presence diminished. Rumors circulated that he had been threatened by government agents concerned about the documentation of his contacts. Some accounts claim his house was burned to the ground, forcing him further into hiding. Lt. Colonel Stevens reportedly found Villa "hiding out," suggesting a deliberate withdrawal from public scrutiny. Villa maintained his story but increasingly refused public appearances and interviews.

Paul Villa died in September 1981 in Los Lunas, New Mexico, at age 65, taking most of his direct knowledge of the beings and their purpose to his grave. His photographic legacy remains one of the most photographically documented contactee cases of the post-war era, yet one that remains deeply disputed. Whether Villa's encounter represents genuine extraterrestrial contact preserved on film or an elaborate decades-long hoax continues to divide the UFO research community.