| EDITOR AND STILL SUPREME COMMANDER: James W. Moseley
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR:
|
NON-SCHEDULED NEWSLETTER Volume 46, No. 4 April 10th, 1999 |
MAILING ADDRESS: P. 0. Box 1709 Key West, FL 33041 |
The story is rather convoluted, but it jells nicely with the famed
Aurora, Texas UFO crash of 1897. Unfortunately, the Aurora case is
generally accepted in the UFO field as having
been a hoax. This is the conclusion reached
by historian Ronald Story in his 1980 "Encyclopedia of UFOS", and also by
better-known UFO historian Jerry Clark. (And also by Dr.
J. Allen Hynek and others!) Clark has a long
article about Aurora in his most recent encyclopedia,
detailing the involvement of various researchers through the years, including
Hayden Hewes of the International UFO Bureau (now defunct), and MUFON.
According to a letter written in 1925 and re-discovered some time after that, two cigar-shaped spaceships landed near Ladonia, Texas on the night of April 16th, 1897, and little men were seen moving about in the vicinity of the ships. It is believed that one of these ships crashed the next day in Aurora, slightly less than a hundred miles away. (It starts to sound like Roswell already, doesn't it - except that the event was over a hundred years ago, and no eye-witnesses are still alive! )
Anyhow, some time after 1929 (the date is not made clear), a strange skeleton was skeleton embedded in plaster of paris dug up near Ladonia and was shown to Professor Bob Slaughter, a well-known paleontologist in that area. The skeleton is about forty inches tall, has mostly hollow bones, has teeth like a human, and most interestingly, there is some sort of ornate belt and ceremonial sword. There are some resemblances to the dreaded "greys" of modern saucer mythology, but Andrus, always the cautious researcher, carefully states: "MUFON is making no claims that the skeleton is of an extraterrestrial alien.... (but) the similarities are sufficient to make it very exciting for future study." (If this is not a claimed alien , why is it the lead story in the MUFON Journal?
Bob Slaughter wrote a book published in 1996 called "Fossil Remains of Mythical Creatures" (italics ours), of which the first chapter is called "Alien". The other chapters deal with strange bones and fossils from around the world. It is published by Smilodoness Books of Dallas, Texas, and it sounds like such a good read that we are trying hard to obtain a copy - with no success, so far. The publisher won't answer his phone!
Sadly, Bob Slaughter died in early 1998, just months before Walt Andrus tried to contact him. All the other key figures in the case are either dead or missing. Researching this weird skeleton will not be easy, but in a phone interview with your "Smear" editor, Andrus vowed to go on trying!
One clue that Andrus might want to follow up is that Bob Slaughter was a sculptor as well as a paleontologist.
And guess what! According to the MUFON Journal, Slaughter's widow is working on a movie deal regarding all this, and the part of the deceased paleontologist is tentatively scheduled to be played by famed actor Paul Newman. Egads!
Let us close with a quote from Jerry Clark's commentary on the Aurora case: "All stories of lgth century UFO crashes must be viewed as suspect. It is probable that few such reports were believed, or even meant to be believed, in their time. Some are obvious jokes ... Newspaper hoaxing and frontier humor surely have far more to do with the genesis of these reports than do interplanetary tragedies... "
MUFON's membership has been slipping badly of late, partly because of the Internet, and partly for other reasons. We suspect that Andrus, with the help of the Journal's new editor Dwight Connelly, hopes to reverse this trend by jazzing things up a bit. Way to go, Walt!
Later: Through the kindness of Judith Slaughter, "Smear" has obtained her late husband's book. Perhaps the best part is the Introduction, written by a friend named George Toomer, supposedly a professor of comparative religion at Ladonia (Texas) University.
Professor Toomer is a fascinating combination of athiest, agnostic, and 4-D Thinker. Bob Slaughter apparently had much the same point of view. (Come to think of it, maybe Toomer is Slaughter!) Here are a few little gems from the Introduction:
"If one mythological example is accepted, then it becomes hypocritical to disregard another. Can we laugh at Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy while placing a call for an exorcist to chase away a demonic possession? ... A true believer in one mythical standard can't in good conscience poo-poo the standard of another... "
Also:
"The question of authenticity is no more important than that of religious relics ... There is really no right or wrong answer when dealing with the mystical - one accepts or rejects according to one's current popular faith in such things..."
Finally:
"A hoax is when someone is fooled. It's different from a lie in my opinion. Generally, only a fool can be a victim of a hoax, while the victim of a lie is usually one who had the faith to believe and was misled..."
Next comes the "Alien" chapter, followed by a chapter about mermaids, followed by a chapter about leprechauns; and so it goes, on through this fascinating little tome! If only Prof. Slaughter were still alive, we would surely consider giving him our coveted "Ufologist of the Year" Award! Slaughter appears to be in the school of the late, great Charles Fort himself, who deliberately assigned absurd theories to anomalous data, just to make us think!
As usual, Whitley Strieber was one of the most interesting out of approximately ten guest speakers on the program. He sold & autographed his current book "Confirmation", as pictured below, and he is currently working on another book called "The Coming Superstorm". The new offering concerns a weird experience he had on June 6th, 1998, while in Toronto on a book tour. It seems that a very strange human-looking guy knocked on his door in the middle of the night, and proceeded to give him words of wisdom that Strieber takes very seriously. "The Coming Superstorm" is co-authored with famed radio personality Art Bell.
Strieber also mentioned that he soon will be taking another detailed lie detector test. We predict that he will pass.
Another speaker we enjoyed was Edgar Evans Cayce, sole surviving son of the well-known psychic from Virginia Beach, Va., who died in 1945. We knew little about the elder Cayce, but now learn that he must have been a very kind and sincere man. A few of his predictions have come true,though many others have not - at least not yet.
And then there was Lloyd Pye, a last-minute substitute for a speaker who couldn't make it. Pye spoke of the discovery (see below) of two allegedly alien or hybrid skulls, which were found in a mine shaft in Mexico some sixty or seventy years ago. It isn't clear whether these skulls are pre-Columbian or not, as they have not yet been dated. Pye is a Bigfoot researcher who has become side-tracked onto the alien syndrome. His work was mentioned in Bob Brown's letter to the editor in our last issue of "Smear".
We would have enjoyed hearing for the first time Philip Corso, Jr., son of the late Lt. Col. Philip Corso, who was the author of "The Day After Roswell". However, Junior couldn't make it, and his substitute was the noted Dr. Roger Leir, the foot doctor who has become intensely interested in alien implants. Leir has worked closely with Strieber and others, and as his Project Awareness biography tells us, he is on the "cutting edge" of UFO research!
Other speakers included a bright energetic young lady named Prudence Calabrese, whose topic was "Encounters with the Grey Dude". She also attempted to give the audience a two-hour crash course in remote viewing, which, though it may well exist, is beyond the humble capabilities of your "Smear" editor.
Also on the program was Bob Oechsler, back from a four-year self-imposed exile from the UFO community; Linda Moulton Howe, ranting on about the latest MJ-12 documents; Nancy Talbott, in "The Layman's Guide to a Scientific Look at Anomalous Events;" and Michael Lindemann in "The Future of Extraterrestrial Contact". There was also an unusual event in the lecture program, called "The People's Court", in which your editor was unexpectedly invited to participate as a panelist.
The convention ended with a Secret Meeting late Sunday afternoon, hosted by former MUFON Eastern Regional Director Donald Ware. This was an annual event of Ware's, in which he invites people to come & speak freely about their sightings, contacts, abductions, etc. Although Ware was cor- dial to us in other ways, he refused to let us into the Secret Meeting even as an "observer", as he insists that the press is never invited.
Sadly, there was no UFO sighting at the Project Awareness convention this year. Last year a daylight sighting was made by several attendees and was even videotaped. The object looked pretty much like an airplane to us, but more knowledgeable souls deemed it to be a "real" UFO.
In reality, Hoagland may just as well have been under stress due to fear that the new Mars photos now being received will show his Martian artifacts to be nothing more sinister than natural formations. These pictures are 20 to 40 times more detailed than any previous ones, according to what we have read...
Maybe it's just because the Esteemed Editor and I haven't yet found a publisher for our
book "Shockingly Close to the Truth" (hint,hint, you publishers and
potential backers/investors out there), but it seems to me ufology's in a
terrible slump. And from where I sit, it looks
like the deepest, darkest, dumbest slump since
the Field was spawned in 1947.
There have been slumps before, but those were different, caused by things outside our control - UFO-sighting droughts or apparent droughts, and high-profile official debunkings like the Condon Report - deflating general public interest and drying up the positive cash flow of UFO groups and authors. The heart and (most of) the mind of ufology remained sound. Good researchers kept working. The fringies remained on the fringe and generally harmless, not taken seriously by many in or outside the Field.
This time it's different, largely self-inflicted, with much help from TV (argh) and the (Argh!) Internet. The former is an electronic National Enquirer (although when Bob Pratt was with the Enquirer, it did some good UFO reporting). The Net is a giant virtual petri dish, incubating and spreading virulent foolishness and paranoia with lightning speed, infecting the minds of the credulous in far greater numbers and far more quickly than ever before possible.
In no small degree, the fringies aren't fringies any longer. Roswell is clung to desperately in the face of overwhelming facts. Amateurish hoax documents ginned up by a transparent phony are touted by a leading ufologist and his son - with massive financial backing from a too-rich too-soon wonderkind. An alien (maybe) skeleton "in armour bright" makes the cover of the MUFON UFO Journal, the subject of an article (badly) written by MUFON's International Director for Life, Our Lady of the Moldy Cows seeks to revive the Aztec crash hoax and isn't given the hook! (There may be more to Aztec than a hoax in aid of a con - as those of you who attend my talk at this year's National UFO Conference will learn.) Absurd theories about abductions are propounded by top abductologists with little resistance from within the ranks of "Pro-ufology". Etc., etc., etc.
As with Gresham's law (bad money drives out good), the tidal wave of nonsense is overwhelming the trickle of worthwhile material. Even so,there are a few reasons to hope for better days. But I'm out of Space. So, until next time ...
"Below is my composite (forensic) sketch which I think is 'a smoking gun piece of evidence' that establishes beyond a shadow of a doubt the fact that two alien space craft of the turn-of-the-century air ship type did land near the town of Ladonia, Texas, in April of 1897. I do not understand why Mr. Andrus and other UFO experts who have handled this little creature's remains, along with its handsome breast plate and sword, continue to pussy-foot around the obvious. They should just say it like it really is, about this momentous discovery!
"The creature is not one of a new genus and species 'ladonia wallacia' as the late Professor Slaughter proclaims. Actually, it is a fine specimen of a 'Marvinicus Martianius', or Marvin the Martian type entity.
"...Suggestion: I think that full-size plaster replicas of the alien skeleton should be made available to MUFON members who would like to have one for a rec-room wall decoration or front lawn shrine. A limited edition would bring the highest prices and be sought by collectors of impeccable taste. The original might even be sold to pop-king Michael Jackson for a handsome price!"
"...How bad will it be? Glitches here and there, likely more comical than disastrous. However, there will be a perception of a huge problem, and, with computers as with ufology, perception can take on a life of its own. Every mechanical thing that goes wrong in the weeks surrounding next January 1st will be blamed on the Y2K bug, and we've already seen just how well the Y2K issue fits into the delusions of millennialist crackpots. We will see persons who will feel compelled to bring their Doomsday fantasies into reality, and they will not confine themselves to computer viruses..."
"I have now been found competent to stand trial, and have been sent down from Mid Hudson Center to Riverhead (N.Y.) County Jail as of Thursday. It was sudden and a surprise to me that they did this so quickly.Only a week ago I was interviewed by the Hospital Forensic Committee, and they rendered their opinion that I was competent. I guess I am a priority case still, and the judge can't wait to try the case. I should be going to court this week and I'll find out more.
"Please send 'Saucer Smear' to me at the following address: John Ford, Riverhead County Jail; 100 Centre Drive, Riverhead, N.Y. 11901. Please keep me informed of the current debates in ufology, and write soon."
"Perhaps you are right about the Cash-Landrum case - that a nuclear powered aircraft exploded and irradiated Betty, Vicki and Colby - but (mysteriously) did not irradiate their car or the area where they (allegedly) stopped. (Schuessler checked for radiation but found none.) If Betty was seriously radiated, surely the crews of the 23 helicopters (allegedly) escorting the aircraft would have been very seriously irradiated and all would have soon died - word of which would surely have leaked out to the media."And, despite 'Aviation Leak's' many, many highly placed military and industry sources, it never heard about such a nuclear powered aircraft being built and test flown - and exploding. (Av. Week sharply criticized the Pentagon for cancelling its nuclear powered aircraft program around 1960, as I recall. One reason the program was cancelled was that its flight crew could only fly about 100 hours before acquiring a maximum safe radiation level, after which they would be retired.)
"If Betty Cash was in excellent health (except for open-heart surgery) prior to the 'UFO incident', why wouldn't she and Schuessler be eager to make public her pre-incident medical records??? If Betty suffered irradiation, why did she never suffer leukemia after the incident? ...
"With reference to your item in the Feb. 15th 'Smear' about Phil Klass' spinal surgery ... I am sure that all in the UFO community, whether an acknowledged researcher or a mere fan, also wish him well..."
"Enclosed is my 'Love Donation' for your wonderful 'Saucer Smear. I don't know how I have made it for so long without it. Keep up the excellent work."
"In May of 1998 I changed the subtitle of 'C-COM' to 'An Independent Monthly Intelligence Report on Controversial Subjects'. Formerly the subtitle had been 'An Independent UFO/Unusual Information Newsletter Published Monthly'. Thus, the emphasis has been changed from a purely UFO/Fortean format. I have a lot of controversial subjects that I am interested in, that I intend to comment on, over and above UFOS. China is one of them. It is my firm belief that 'kissing up' to China will ultimately be very detrimental to the United States...I must admit I have been a bit lazy in the past two newsletters. The new MJ-12 documents are interesting to me even if they are fakes. However, I printed them mainly to get the information out to interested persons to tear apart at their leisure. I have no personal opinion about their authenticity, except to say that I think whoever wrote parts of them knew something. The best way to discredit information is with disinformation or misinformation. Include parts of the truth with outright lies, and all the documents are contaminated. Thus, any cynic or skeptic would have a field day, and I would assume that you fall somewhere within this category ..."
"... By the way, one of the players (characters) who becomes completely overlooked in the MJ-12 saga is English author Timothy Good. As you may recall, prior to Bill Moore's announcement in 1987, Mr. Good announced to the British press the existence of the original MJ-12 documents which would be published in his first major work, 'Above Top Secret'. As a matter of fact, it was his announcement that forced the Moore/Friedman camp to proclaim they also had the documents."Several years ago in his follow-up, Mr. Moore published what he called an unauthenticated memo from the director of Central Intelligence ... This same memo now appears as part of the new batch of Mi-12 related material. Not only that, but after careful analysis, there definitely appears to be a similarity in the handwritten notes appearing on that and another document dated sixteen years later ... Amazing coincidence? I don't think so. I think some people can't see the forest for the trees, and the talent pool in this field is amazingly shallow. Let me know what you think."
"Since MJ-12 is still being kept alive by artificial means (when it should have died naturally long ago) I thought I would test Bill Moore's assertion that he had never claimed that the original MJ-12 papers were authentic. He now writes ('Smear', Feb. 15 issue) that he only claimed 'my research had given me no reason to think that they weren't authentic'. Evidently a double negative, for him, is not equivalent to a single positive."In the Moore-Shandera press release of May 29, 1987 (reprinted on June 11) we read the following: 'If the attached documents are genuine, as all evidence obtained until now indicates, then the following conclusions can be drawn', etc., etc.
"From the same release: 'It is our considered opinion, based upon research and interviews conducted thus far, that the document and its contents appear to be genuine'. Moore then employs the double negative by saying that nothing has yet surfaced 'to suggest otherwise', and so on.
"In a release of September 11, 1987 we read: 'There is also compelling evidence to suggest that a set of anonymously sent documents... (the MJ-12 stuff) ... may well be authentic.'
"Readers can draw their own conclusions. Perhaps Bill can go further and tell us his views on the latest MJ-12 material touted by the Woods (father & son). Having introduced MJ-12 to ufology over a decade ago, he surely has some interest in any follow-up documents.
"One writer here has described the MJ-12 saga as 'the thinking man's UFO entertainment'.
"As for Phil Klass, I feel that one day he is likely to be treated as was Donald Menzel after his death - namely by having his name dragged through the dirt, with phoney documents suddenly turning up about his 'secret life'. Inevitable, isn't it? ... "
Just Published...
The Anomalist 7Partial contents:...our largest issue ever!...and much more, by Antonio Huneeus, Greg Sandow, Michael Grosso, Gregory Mangiacopra, Colin Bennett, and T. Peter Fark. 192 pp.
- The Soviet UFO Dossier
- The Abduction Conundrum
- Transplant Memories
- The Santa Clara Sea Monster
- Charles Fort's Degrees of Reality
- Vanishing Vanishings
Order any number of new or back issues at only $9.95 each and pay only $2.50 postage and handling total. Or take adavantage of our special offer: order any five issues for only $40 and we pay postage. Save $10! Please specify the issues you want and make your check or money order payable to:
Dennis Stacy
Box 12434
San Antonio
Texas 78212Or visit our web site and print out the handy order form. You can find us at:
Saucer Smear Index
Saucer Smear Mailbox
Please note that letters for Smear editor James Moseley should be snail-mailed to PO Box 1709, Key West, FL 33041, insofar as Cdr. Moseley is proudly computer-illiterate and determined to stay that way.Own a genuine artifact of ufological history!
Line your birdcage for pennies a sheet!
Back issues available for the last 43 years!
HTML version by S L M
