February 11, 1997: Mysterious Infections - Joyce Murphy

Joyce Murphy, president of Beyond Boundaries UFO research newsletter, joins Art Bell to investigate a disturbing incident in Jasper, Arkansas, where 45 elementary school children collapsed on a playground with severe headaches, rashes, breathing difficulties, and fatigue. Seven students were hospitalized in intensive care, and emergency workers who treated the children also fell ill, as did hospital laundry workers who handled their contaminated clothing two days later.

A caller from Jasper confirms the essential details, reporting that an unknown compound was detected in the children's blood and urine samples but officials claim they cannot identify it. The school was temporarily closed, and a state health department meeting left parents with no answers, only assurances that the threat had passed. Art reads from U.S. Code Title 50, which permits the Department of Defense to conduct chemical and biological testing on human subjects with minimal oversight, raising uncomfortable questions about what really occurred.

A self-described military-connected caller phones in to suggest the incident was part of a civilian control experiment, a claim that infuriates Art. The episode also features Murphy discussing her UFO expeditions to Mexico, where she has filmed anomalous craft near the active Popocatepetl volcano, and reports of the chupacabra appearing in the California high desert.