St. Peter at the Sonic Drive-In, Pt. 1

Sudden Disappearances and a UFO Cult in Small Town America

On September 20th, 1991, Russell County Sheriff Robert Balloun was dealing with an unusual case, one that he would call a “giant, mixed-up puzzle.”¹ Speaking with an AP reporter, Balloun announced that there were no solid leads in the disappearance of four women from the small Kansas town of Russell. Missing since September 9th were Donna Butts, Marcia Brock, and Brock’s two college age daughters Sonya and Stephanie. Also missing was an Ottawa, Kansas doctor by the name of Scott Corder. The only stated connection between all of these missing people was “their common belief in UFOs.”²

The disappearances were treated with light humor earlier in the week. Evidently, the missing UFO enthusiasts’ unorthodox beliefs were well-known throughout the area, inspiring convenience stores to put up novelty messages on their signs such as "Official UFO Fuel Stop" and "Free Mars Bar With Every UFO Fill Up."³ One reporter noted: “Patrons at local restaurants joke about being beamed up by aliens, and warn one another to be careful of unfriendly aliens.”⁴ But as time went on without contact to any friends or family, the novelty of the UFO believers disappearing wore off. Sheriff Balloun certainly took it seriously, expanding the search to Arkansas and Colorado and electing to get the Kansas Bureau of Investigation in on the probe. Strange rumors circulated around small town:

Since the disappearance, rumors here deal with a secret group of believers who met to discuss unidentified flying objects. Those involved allegedly believed that Seventh Trumpet Angel would trumpet the second coming of Christ and Armageddon—the final battle of good and evil at the end of the world. Only the circle of believers—who were to be picked up by the aliens and transported elsewhere—would survive Armageddon, and they would be left to repopulate the earth.⁵

This clandestine group of end days UFO believers were made up of well-educated people: Marcia Brock was an English and journalism teacher at Russell High School and another supposed member, Gertrude Furney, was an art teacher at the same school. Brock’s two daughters were both students at the University of Kansas. Locals were surprised at the Brocks and Furney’s apparent belief in UFOs—the high school principal notes that the administration, while aware of the group, the missing women’s “names were never connected with it.”⁶

Scott Corder and Donna Butts were a different story. Corder had been a respected medical doctor and member of J. Allen Hynek’s Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS) before his UFO beliefs led to his license to practice being taken away. Specifically, an apocalyptic warning letter sent to President George H.W. Bush in 1989 may have been “instrumental” in the Kansas Board of Healing Arts’ decision to suspend his license.

Corder claimed that the extraterrestrial beings told him and Butts that the Bush administration will “come under fire” and that Bush will fall and be replace(d) by Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan., who’s hometown is Russell.

The two claimed that the warning was an effort to ward off the threat of Bush’s death should a certain set of circumstances occur.

“It was like if he goes to a certain area of the country at a certain time,” Butts said. Neither she nor Corder specified exactly what was supposed to happen or when.⁷

Secret Service apparently took the message as more of a threat than a well-meaning warning, although Corder would not say “whom he contacted in Washington, how the contact was made, or who was investigating the warning.”⁸

Sidenote: Around exactly a year later, the Gulf Breeze 6 would go AWOL from an NSA listening post in West Germany following a similarly apocalyptic mixture of UFO/esoteric religion. Decent background can be found in one of my past Twitter threads here. From information obtained in Ouija board sessions, these six military men and women believed that the rapture was imminent, and they had to kill the antichrist and/or escape from the impending end of days. Like the Russell affair, the group of soldiers mixed the Book of Revelations with the UFO craze. Several papers quoted a friend of one of the GB6 who reported that they believed Jesus would arrive to the planet in a flying saucer when he returned to save them. The rumors were markedly similar to those surrounding the Butts/Corder UFO group: “They were apparently convinced that the aliens had chosen them as the chosen few to be on hand when they reclaimed the earth.”⁹ While an attempt to contact President Bush got Corder’s medical license revoked, Vance A. Davis (one of the GB6) alleged on Coast to Coast AM that both Bush and Sen. Bob Dole pushed for the release of the group.¹⁰ However, the maddening story of the Gulf Breeze 6 is one for another day—one that will undoubtedly arrive.

Back in Russell, Sheriff Balloun continued to establish the backgrounds of those missing. The sudden absence of Brock and her daughters was viewed as unexpected, but Corder’s wife said that him disappearing without explanation was not uncommon. If this group had a ringleader, it was Donna Butts. She was the main conduit for the contacts with the magnificent extraterrestrial/angel beings. Butts was a 39-year-old housewife and part-time housekeeper with five children at the time of the mysterious disappearances. In 1980, Butts’ life changed when she encountered a UFO along Interstate 70 between Salina and Junction City, KS which was pursued by helicopters and other military vehicles. My skeptical self cannot help but notice the proximity to Fort Riley as a possible location for advanced military aircraft to be tested, but aircraft does not explain the rest of the phenomenon. Butts began having “vague flashes of memory” surrounding the event which gradually became stronger and culminated in contacts with multiple extraterrestrial beings.¹¹ A complex cosmology formed through consistent channeling (which will be explored more thoroughly in future installments) and she wound up attracting a following of other Russell women. Being assigned to investigate her UFO sighting by CUFOS, Corder too found himself amazed by Butts’ cosmic message, much to the later chagrin of the medical board. He did not start out as a firm believer in the apocalyptic and esoteric side of ufology, he was assigned to investigate Butts from a medical standpoint after CUFOS had received several letters about her encounter. Impressed by her sincerity, he a had a spiritual awakening. “I was convinced she had a direct link to a phenomenon that had the answers for mankind,” Corder told the LA Times.¹²

Butts, Corder, and the rest of their UFO/bible study group had left an impression on their small Kansas community, both mentally and physically. The last time any of the Brocks were seen was at the funeral of Gertrude Furney. An art teacher, Furney crafted some artwork for a local park, seemingly inspired Butts’ channeling and, as always, the end times: “The sculpture is a representation of the Seventh Trumpet Angel. A bronze plague on its concrete base read: ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and his Christ and he shall reign forever and ever.’”¹³

Locals were split on the sculpture, specifically after the disappearances when the UFO group’s beliefs came to wider public scrutiny, and some argued that “it represents an otherworldly statement that doesn’t fit” with the down-to-earth, rural community of Russell. Vandals utilized it as an opportunity for more UFO humor, with messages like “Help aliens” or “Help they got me” scratched into the base.¹⁴ Stranger still, Sheriff Balloun reported another bizarre rumor spreading around town: That the trumpet of the statue had moved of its own volition.¹⁵ Was it the end of days? Were Butts, Corder, and the Brocks spirited away by angelic extraterrestrials?

That is all for this installment of Getting Spooked, but I will return to the Butts/Corder contacts in the future. In the next part of this series, we’ll find out what the heck the title means and gain more specifics into the UFO religion that sprouted in Russell, Kansas in the late 1980s. As always, thank you for reading. If you like what you have read so far and want to support the publication, think about picking up a paid subscription or drop a one-time donation on Ko-fi. All articles will continue to be free, but donations are truly appreciated. I can be found on Twitter at @TannerFBoyle1 if you have any questions, comments, or requests. Until next time, stay spooked.

1. Associated Press. “Mystery of missing women deepens.” The Iola Register, 20 September 1991. Accessed 30 December 2022. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/110678331/the-iola-register/

2. Ibid.

3. Deseret News. “4 UFO Believers Who Disappeared in Kansas Turn Up at D.C. Airport.” Deseret News, 27 September 1991. Accessed 30 December 2022. https://www.deseret.com/1991/9/27/18943521/4-ufo-believers-who-disappeared-in-kansas-turn-up-at-d-c-airport

4. Montague, Sharon. “UFO rumors, jokes fly around in Russell.” The Olathe Daily News, 27 September 1991. Accessed 30 December 2022. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/110675636/the-olathe-daily-news/

5. Ibid.

6. Ibid.

7. Harris News Service. “Doctor says letter to Bush cost license.” The Salina Journal, 22 March 1989. Accessed 30 December 2022. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/110677798/the-salina-journal/

8. Ibid.

9. Walters, Nolan. “6 decide to ‘be all they can be’ in outer space.” The News Tribune (Tacoma), 19 July 1990. Accessed 30 December 2022. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/109522394/the-news-tribune/

10. “Ouija Board Prophecies – Vance Davis.” Coast to Coast AM, hosted by Art Bell, 8 June 1994. https://ia902506.us.archive.org/12/items/1994-06-08-coast-to-coast-am-with-art-bell-ouija-board-prophecies-vance-davis/1994-06-08%20-%20Coast%20to%20Coast%20AM%20with%20Art%20Bell%20-%20Ouija%20Board%20Prophecies%20-%20Vance%20Davis.mp3

11. Butts, Donna R. and S. Scott Corder. UFO Contact: The Four. Tucson: UFO Photo Archives, 1989. Page 23.

12. Braun, Stephen. “The Strange Faith of Dr. Corder: He Believes That Aliens Walk Among Us and the Apocalypse Is Nigh. But Does That Mean He Isn’t a Good Doctor?” Los Angeles Times, 23 October 1994. Accessed 30 December 2022. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-10-23-tm-53920-story.html

13. Montague, Sharon. “UFO rumors, jokes fly around in Russell.” The Olathe Daily News, 27 September 1991. Accessed 30 December 2022. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/110675636/the-olathe-daily-news/

14. Ibid.

15. Associated Press. “Mystery of missing women deepens.” The Iola Register, 20 September 1991. Accessed 30 December 2022. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/110678331/the-iola-register/