Zigmund Adamski

Zygmund (or Zygmunt) Jan Adamski (born August 17 1923, Poland) was a coal miner at Lofthouse Colliery, who mysteriously disappeared from his Tingley home in June 1980. His body was found on top of a large stack of anthracite in Todmorden. He had lived in Tingley since 1960, having married Leokadia Kowalska in 1951 in West Yorkshire. She had multiple sclerosis in later life.

Disappearance

Zigmund set out to get some potatoes at 15.30 on June 6 1980. The next day he was due to attend a family wedding, which he was much looking forward to. His body was found five days later in Todmorden next to a railway line on the afternoon of Wednesday June 11th at 15.45 by Trevor Parker, the son of the owner of the Tomlin's coal yard. The yard had not been used since 11.00am that morning, and the body had not been seen at that time; Mr Parker had arrived at 8.00. At 16.10 a police officer, Alan Godfrey, attended the scene, with a colleague. On examination, it was found he had died of a heart attack and had peculiar burns on his neck and shoulders. His clothes were in good condition although the shirt was removed. He had not attended any hospitals in the missing five days and had only been on the anthracite a few hours before he was found. It appeared that neither had he slept rough in the intervening days and he had been eating healthily, and that no struggle had taken place. The post mortem was carried out at 21.15 in Hebden Bridge by Dr Alan Edwards, a consultant pathologist at the Royal Halifax Infirmary. He found that Adamski's death took place between 11.00 and 13.00 that day. The burn on his neck had been there two days before his death, and had had a peculiar ointment applied that forensic scientists could not identify.

There was some deliberation over the cause of his death as his death was not registered until the autumn of 1980. The coroner was James Turnbull.

Connections with UFOs

Zigmund shared a surname with George Adamski, a well-known UFO researcher and contactee. He was also Polish and lived in the United States. The policeman who found him, Alan Godfrey would have an encounter six months later on November 28 at 5.00 with a UFO on "Burnley Road" (A646) in Todmorden as he was driving his car on duty. This was one mile from the coal yard. He could not account for fifteen minutes of his time. Under hypnosis through assistance with Manchester-based MUFORA in 1981, he claimed he had been abducted.

The Sunday Mirror on September 27 1981 published the story on its front page as a UFO abduction, which was written by John Sheard and Stewart Bonney.

References

External links

* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/yorkslincs/series2/ufo_alien_abduction_yorkshire_pennine_sighting_adamski_mystery.shtml BBC Inside Out]
* [http://www.bufora.org.uk/Articles/Zigmund%20Adamski.pdf Investigation] by BUFORA