---
aliases:
- William Richard Higgins
- Colonel Higgins
- Rich Higgins
born: 1945-01-15
category: Psychics & Remote Viewers
died: 1989-07-31
location: Danville, Kentucky, USA
summary: William Richard Higgins was a Marine Lieutenant Colonel who served as chief
  of the United Nations Military Observer Group Lebanon.
tags:
- Person
- RemoteViewer
- Military
- Stargate
---

William Richard Higgins was a Marine Lieutenant Colonel who served as chief of the United Nations Military Observer Group Lebanon. On February 17, 1988, he was abducted in [Lebanon](/places/lebanon/) after meeting with the Amal Militia in the coastal city of Tyre[^1].

Higgins's abduction became an international incident, generating a crisis at the [Pentagon](/organizations/pentagon/). Prior to joining the UN team, he had served as a military aide to Secretary of Defense [Caspar W. Weinberger](/people/caspar-w-weinberger/), giving him in-depth knowledge of classified military matters and making him a high-value hostage[^1].

It was feared that Higgins would be tortured to death by Hezbollah terrorists in their effort to extract classified information. The [DIA](/organizations/defense-intelligence-agency/) believed his abduction had been carefully orchestrated by [Imad Mughniyah](/people/imad-mughniyah/), the leader of Hezbollah's terrorist operations[^1].

The [Project 8808](/programs/stargate-project/) remote viewers, including [Angela Dellafiora](/people/angela-dellafiora/), Paul Smith, and [Ed Dames](/people/ed-dames/), were tasked with helping to determine if Higgins was alive and to locate him. Dellafiora perceived him to be alive and held in a "small structure" on a hill near a major road, a location later corroborated by a released hostage, [Rudolf Cordes](/people/rudolf-cordes/), who confirmed he had been held in a specially constructed shed near the area Dellafiora identified[^1].

Despite initial perceptions, Higgins was likely killed between four and six weeks after his capture. His body was kept on ice by the terrorists. In the summer of 1989, after [Israel](/places/israel/) captured Hezbollah leader Sheik Obeid, Hezbollah released a video of Higgins's dead body with a noose around his neck, demanding Obeid's return. An [Federal Bureau of Investigation](/organizations/federal-bureau-of-investigation/) forensics team determined Higgins had died before he was hanged, based on the position of his feet[^1].

Higgins's body was not recovered for another two and a half years, when his mummified remains were found in a bag left in a school parking lot in southern Beirut[^1].

[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.