Former police officer Alan Godfrey will forever remember the chilling scene he encountered at a West Yorkshire coal yard in 1980.
He had been summoned to the Todmorden yard where a man’s body was discovered under mysterious circumstances.
The deceased was identified as Yorkshire miner Zigmund Adamski, who had vanished from his home in Thornfield Crescent, Tingley, near Wakefield, in June 1980. Mr Godfrey described the dead man’s eyes as wide open, reflecting a look of sheer terror.
The 56 year old miner, affectionately known as ‘Ziggy’, had embarked on a walk to the local shops to purchase groceries on June 6. It was the last time the Polish-born Mr Adamski was seen alive.
Trevor Parker, man who found the body of Zigmund Adamski under mysterious circumstances in June 1980, pictured September 1981.
His wife Lottie initially suspected that he had been abducted. Five days post his disappearance, Trevor Parker, a worker at the coal yard, found his body atop a 10ft high pile of coal at his father’s coal yard in Todmorden, approximately 20 miles from Tingley.
He was dressed in a suit, but his shirt, watch, and wallet were missing. His clothes were reportedly ‘improperly’ fastened, and he had only one day’s worth of beard growth.
Furthermore, Mr Adamski’s hair had been crudely cut short.
The body was marred with burns on the head, neck, and shoulders. His face reportedly displayed ‘absolute terror’, yet there were no injuries to explain his death.
The burns were coated in an unidentified ointment that baffled scientists. The mystery of what happened to him and how he ended up in Todmorden remains unsolved, leading to a flurry of speculation and wild theories.
One tabloid suggested that Zigmund had been abducted by aliens who then dumped his body atop the coal pile. Other theories proposed he was killed by KGB forces or left disoriented after being hit by ‘ball lightning’ or another unexplained phenomenon.
The unexplained death of Zigmund Adamski as reported in the Sunday Mirror on September 27, 1981.
The ‘alien abduction’ theories gained traction when Alan Godfrey, who discovered Mr Adamski’s body at the coal yard, reported his own UFO encounter five months later, less than a mile from the scene. The respected officer sketched the UFO and, under hypnosis, recounted a tale of being taken aboard the UFO and examined by two non-human entities.
This story made global headlines. Now in his 70s, Mr Godfrey told YorkshireLive that the story he shared under hypnosis was likely just a dream, adding: “I never said I was abducted by aliens.”
However, he remains open to the possibility that Adamski was indeed abducted by extraterrestrial beings. “I am open-minded. I can’t rule it out.”
Mr. Godfrey does not believe Adamski was murdered, although a senior police colleague at the time suspected foul play.
Instead, he thinks Adamski’s body was placed on the coal pile “by someone or something.”
He recalled, “He was on top of the coal pile on his back with not a bit of coal on him. His eyes were wide open and he had burn marks. Why would he climb up a stack of coal? ” Despite the coroner’s open verdict, which attributed Adamski’s death to a heart attack, Mr. Godfrey believes there are still unanswered questions. “There was some ointment on the back of his neck. Samples were sent to a Home Office laboratory which couldn’t identify it.”
The image of Adamski’s face has stayed with Mr. Godfrey.
“Those eyes were staring up at me. I was looking down on him from a foot away. Those eyes sent a shudder down my spine. They were wide open. He had a look of someone who had seen something or someone that had scared him to death.”
He added, “Something or someone put him on top of that pile of coal. And something scared him to death.”
James Turnbull, Coroner who investigated the death of Zigmund Adamski who died under mysterious circumstances in June 1980, pictured West Yorkshire, September 1981.
In a later conversation with the pathologist who performed the post-mortem examination, Mr. Godfrey was told that Adamski’s case was a classic example of someone being scared to death. The former policeman remains baffled as to how Adamski’s body ended up on the coal pile.
“How he got there I don’t know. I think something put him there.”
Mr. Godfrey, an author who has independently published a book on the Adamski case, noted the eerie similarities with Travis Walton’s alleged alien abduction in Arizona in 1975: “He (Travis Walton) went missing for five days and he turned up alive. There are similarities.”
The Adamski mystery still draws significant attention after nearly four decades. In Tingley, near Wakefield, it remains a topic of intrigue.
Neil Beecham, a former Morley Observer reporter, commented: “Mr Adamski’s mysterious disappearance 37 years ago has always troubled me and is a topic of conversation for the tight-knit community of Tingley, even to this day.”
Former policeman Alan Godfrey with his book, Who or What Were They?, which includes chapters on the Zigmund Adamski case and his UFO sighting which both happened in 1980
Some experts argue against the extraterrestrial theory for Mr. Adamski’s disappearance. Notably, two UK UFO specialists revisited the case over ten years ago and discovered that at the time of his vanishing, Mr. Adamski was entangled in a family feud – a happening that may have led to his abduction.
Mr. Godfrey acknowledges this hypothesis but added: “We had no reason to suspect any members of the family.”
Les Hewitt, writing for Historic Mysteries, notes that Mr Adamski’s family are of the belief he was captured and confined in a barn prior to suffering a heart attack. He remarks: “The bizarre facts of this case – clothes that were improperly fastened, the body dumped atop a coal heap without noticeable disturbance, burns that were reported to be only two days old with an unidentified gel substance, only one day of beard growth, and another strange encounter with a UFO by the police investigator – lead us to imagine all kinds of possible outcomes.”
Zigmund Adamski who was found dead in Todmorden in 1980.
A skeptical author from The Iron Skeptic website has dismissed the involvement of extraterrestrials in Mr Adamski’s demise, stating: “This case is just another example of a story that sounds good at first, but that dissolves under direct scrutiny. As are so many stories of space alien abduction.”
James Turnbull, the coroner tasked with examining Mr Adamski’s death, conveyed to the BBC in 2003 that it remained the most perplexing case of his vocation, yet he wasn’t persuaded by any theories involving the paranormal. In his words: “The question of where he was before he died and what led to his death just could not be answered.”
In 2018, a spokesman for West Yorkshire Police said: “The Adamski case is not part of any current investigation by the Protective Services (Crime) department.”
* Alan Godfrey’s book, Who or What Were They? is available through eBay.
Get all the latest and breaking news in Yorkshire by signing up to our newsletter here.