| EDITOR AND STILL SUPREME COMMANDER: James W. Moseley
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR:
|
NON-SCHEDULED NEWSLETTER Volume 47, No. 5 June 15th, 2000 |
MAILING ADDRESS: P. 0. Box 1709 Key West, FL 33041 |
THE PAUL BENNEWITZ CASE REVISITED:
It seems that Dr. Bennewitz
somehow got in way over his head in regard to UFO research.
He acquired film of mysterious lights in the sky, he heard a
strange alien code over his radio, and he saw UFOs in daylight
as well as entrances to secret tunnels in the hills near his
Albuquerque home - and these were hills in the vicinity of
places where nuclear weapons were actually being stored!
Bennewitz convinced himself that the aliens had one or more underground bases near Albuquerque, and others near Dulce, New Mexico. Eventually as a good citizen he went to the Air Force security officers at Kirtland with his suspicions, and that is where Sergeant Richard Doty of the OSI (Office of Special Investigations) comes into the picture. Doty met with Bennewitz several times over a period of months, looked at his evidence, and listened to his beliefs.
The trouble was that, as Dory knew, Bennewitz had accidentally tapped into a supposedly secure communications system at Kirtland. The coded messages he was receiving were genuine, but he was grossly misinterpeting them. It was Doty's job to misdirect Bennewitz into continuing to believe the messages were actually from the aliens! In a series of phone interviews with your "Smear" editor, Doty has admitted this.
The interesting thing here is that former ufologist William Moore, who still writes frequently to "Smear", was a friend and co-worker of Sgt. Doty's in that era. Doty says that they did not work together on the Bennewitz case; but if memory serves us correctly, Moore admitted just that, in his famous "mea culpa" lecture at a MUFON convention in Las Vegas, back in 1989. Moore also admitted to other ufological sins, and by doing so he effectively ended his career in ufology. Rather than admire Moore for having made an honest confession, the UFO Field chose to never trust him again!
One thing that neither Moore nor Doty has ever admitted, nor is ever likely to admit, is that they worked together to manufacture the original group of MJ-12 documents which Moore claimed to have received mysteriously in 1987. Yet there are many people in the Field, notably Phil Klass, who strongly believe that they are the guilty parties. With Moore's knowledge of ufology and Doty's knowledge of military terminology, procedure, etc., they were allegedly able to do a passibly good job of creating fake government documents that other saucer enthusiasts would readily believe to be authentic.
Doty claims that his interest in Bill Moore as a "source" was simply because Moore was in correspondence with certain Soviet scientists, in regard to UFOs and possibly other matters. Doty apparently instructed Moore as to what subjects to bring up in his letters to these scientists.
Getting back to Bennewitz - one of the things that was driving him over the Edge was the fact that he would see "energy balls" within his home - supposedly sent by the aliens. Doty thought this was all in Bennewitz's imagination, until he learned that the NSA (National Security Agency) was working independently to steer the poor man deeper into his interplanetary belief system. They also tapped his phone! Eventually Bennewitz spent a short time in a mental hospital, and his more recent activities are not clear. We believe that he is retired, and his son now runs the family business.
We recently obtained the Bennewitz address and telephone number, but Dr. Paul's wife Cindy answered the phone and refused to allow any interview with her husband. Apparently this has been the case in regard to all attempts to talk to the man about UFOs in recent years. We suspect that Bennewitz still harbors his wild interplanetary beliefs. Doty told us that years later, he admitted to Bennewitz that he had, in effect, been hoaxing him - but this confession made no impression at all!
Abductee Christa Tilton, who claims to have an alien hybrid daughter, has written a book about the Bennewitz case, called "The Bennewitz Papers". Although there is no chronology in the book and thus much confusion, this is nevertheless a very interesting book, and it contains many pages from an unpublished manuscript in which Dr. Paul goes into great detail about his far-out UFO belief system. This softcover tome, which we read only recently, can still be obtained from: Global Communications, ll East 30th St., #4-R, New York, N.Y. 10016.
Sgt. Doty does not believe in UFO abductions nor (obviously) in Paul Bennewitz's flying saucer theories; but he does believe strongly that the U.S. government has captured hardware from outer space. He tells us that he has visited the mysterious top-secret "Area 51" in Nevada, where he did not actually see alien technology, but he was told it was there. His clearance was not high enough to be shown the actual hardware, he says. Or - was this disinformation specialist a victim, himself, of disinformation? We'll never know for sure, nor will he!
Our talks with Sgt. Doty also touched on his relationship with famed ufologist & cattle mutilation expert Linda Moulton Howe - but we'll save that story for another time. In the meanwhile, keep down to the speed limit if you are driving in the vicinity of Grants, New Mexico. Since his retirement from the Air Force, Doty is now a state police trooper in that area.
"Perhaps we need a National Magic Agency to make a large and expensive study of all these matters, including the future scientific study of UFOs, if any."Where corruption of children's minds is at stake, I do not believe in freedom of the press or freedom of speech. In my view, publishers who publish or teachers who teach any of the pseudo-sciences as established truth should, on being found guilty, be publicly horsewhipped and forever banned from further activity in these usually honorable professions. Truth and children's minds are too precious for us to allow them to be abused by charlatans."
The title of this highly opinionated article is "UFOs I Have Loved and Lost".
tells how the space alien who backed Bill Clinton in 1992 is now
backing George W. Bush for president this year. Sure enough, we
see a picture on the front page of the alien (see photo at the
right) shaking hands with George W. However, in 1992 this
same alien was photographed with Clinton, Bush Sr., and Ross
Perot; so there is some unnecessary confusion here!
The second astounding item is headlined "NASA Finds Alien 'Port-a-Potty' on the Noon:" Supposedly the unmanned Lunar Prospector photographed this marvel last year, before crashing into a crater near the Moon's south pole. This portable interplanetary outhouse had in it a container filled to the brim with "organic waste", which tested to be 7 to l0 years old. It is not clearly explained just how they were able to determine the age of this alien shit.
Finally, a press conference was recently held at an unnamed hotel in Lyons, France, in which a group of strange-looking beings claimed to be authentic space creatures. Some of the 80 or so reporters on the scene thought the whole thing was an elaborate hoax, whereas others did not. A photo with this story shows two bug-eyed aliens surrounded by flashbulbs and cameras. Egads!...
However, a British expert calls this whole report "absolute rubbish and unlikely in the extreme". He asked why NASA would give over precious payload and mission time to an experiment which is not of immediate scientific importance ....
Our favorite is a case from New York state, which occurred on April 24th of that year - the same day as the famed Lonnie Zamora case in Socorro, New Mexico. A farmer named Gary Wilcox met English-speaking Martians who, among other things, asked for a bag of the manure he was spreading. Wilcox obliged.
The quality of the other 1964 events is somewhat better. If only Hilberg would skip a space or two between items, the book would be much more readable; but in this world you can't have everything: Available from UAPA, 377 Race Street, Berea, Ohio 4#017...
An interesting introduction explains why the authors decided on recognizing seven and only seven basic UFO shapes - sperical, discoid, elliptical, cylindrical, rectangular, triangle, and shape-shifters. The later are those UFOs that "convincingly alter form over time in ways that can't be easily attributed to perceptual angle...and thus cast doubt on the literal, physical nature of the phenomenon, leaving the window open for alternative theories of origin". (Like 3 1/2-D, maybe!)
Every entry includes: type ( = shape), variant, date, location, and names (if any) of witnesses, followed by a one or two page description of the incident, plus an illustration. Also included is a line for "skeptic's solution", and this is often followed by the word none.
The book is a fine piece of research, though not as much fun as the previous book in this series, called "The Field Guide to Extraterrestrials" in which the little guys (and sometimes big guys) themselves are drawn and described...
We can't help but mention that we are highly turned off by two previous books that the good Doctor was connected with. Both of these concern the notorious ufological escapades of Ed Walters of Gulf Breeze, Florida. "Mr. Ed", like Dr. Maccabee, is a nice guy; but investigations by your "Smear" editor and several others come very close to proving that Ed Walters' sightings, photos, etc. are nothing more than sophisticated hoaxes. Thus Bruce Maccabee is either very gullible indeed, or else he is deliberately spreading disinformation, to further confuse the already hopelessly confused UFO scene.
As for "UFO FBI Connection", we haven't read it. The theme is all too familiar. Yes, the Government has often taken UFOs a lot more seriously than they care to admit. But the bottom line is - there is no proof anywhere as to what UFOs really are. Until there is, we will not be impressed!
P.S: Bruce Maccabee is indeed a very accomplished musician, and we enjoy his music very much.
Toby Smith's "Little Gray Men: Roswell and the Rise of a Popular
Culture" (University of New Mexico Press) may be the worst -
though not the most dishonest - Roswell-connected book yet, and
that's really saying something! It reads less like a book than
it does a collection of notes for a book with a couple of
probably never-sold newspaper features thrown in for padding.
At first I wondered how Smith, "an award winning journalist" it says right here on the book's jacket, managed to persuade a moderately prestigious university press to publish his comedy of error and breathtaking inaccuracy. Then I read his acknowledgments. Seems Smith and the U.N.M.Press associate director have been friends "for nearly two decades".
There are so many things wrong with this instant remainder I'm hard pressed to know where to begin. I suppose the best place is Smith's amazing excuse for a unifying premise: "Roswell had served as the launching pad, and continued to be the guiding light...for almost every societal diversion having to do with UFOs. While no one was looking, Roswell also became the embarkation point for every UFO-connected trip by the mass media. Roswell became the fiber out of which all flying saucer stories would henceforth be woven (emphasis added)."
Some of you are thinking, "Well, that's an exaggeration, but not all that far off these days." Not so fast. Smith means since 1947 - that's Forty-seven! He asserts that the whole saucer phenomenon and half-century of popular culture arising from it were spawned by Roswell - every saucer report and such things as a 1957 Nestle's chocolate ad featuring earthling-napping L.G.M.s; the "Captain Video" TV show; and "one of the entertainment industry's first mentions of Roswell (emphasis added)", Jack Nicholson's wacky UFO soliloquy in 1969's "Easy Rider" - in which the actor didn't utter the word "Roswell" nor even hint at it!
Well, not quite everything. Among the few exceptions, Smith asserts the name of the racing plane, "Gee Bee", in the 1991 Disney film "The Rocketeer" was inspired by the last name of Aztec-saucer-crash hoaxer Leo GeBauer. Wonder what the late Jimmy Doolittle, who flew his Gee Bee (Granville Brothers) racer to victory in the 1932 Thompson Trophy Race, would have thought of that?
You get the idea, "Smear" folk. Smith needed fiber from which to weave the appearance of a book. Roswell plus a large helping of chutzpah did the trick!
"Dear Capt. Jim Moseley:"Ref. Joe Stefula's view that 'something really unusual...did occur in the U.S. southwest in the late 1940s - something which the government is indeed still covering up...' Joe is correct, and it is time that the coverup ended. In the late 1940s, during a visit to Los Alamos National Laboratory, President Truman developed a sore penis. Truman's 'problem' defied solution until he received an 'oral treatment' from the grandmother of Monica Lewinsky.
"Reference the Socorro New Mexico UFO incident for which 'UFO groups never found a mundane solution.' My mundane explanation - after spending three days in Socorro in late 1966 and talking to some of its local citizens including policeman Lonnie Zamora - was that the incident was a hoax, inspired by the mayor to create a tourist attraction."
And Las Vegas has suffered from the bright lights of Socorro ever since! - Editor:
"On Wednesday, May 10th, the NBC evening news program 'Extra' featured a segment on the Ladonia, Texas alien skeleton which paleontologist Robert 'Bob' Slaughter (now deceased) allegedly unearthed from a river bed several years ago. As 'Smear' readers may recall, the remains of the creature were thought to be those of an alien airship-type UFO pilot who crashed his craft way back in 1897."Appearing with the skeleton, which is partially imbedded in a convex plaster cast, was Dr. Slaughter's widow, Judith, and MUFON Director Walt Andrus, who felt that the skeleton favorably resembled real visiting aliens in both size and overall appearance. Mrs. Slaughter said that she was thinking of allowing experts to perform DNA tests on the creature's skull.
"Although this matter has long been considered to be a clumsy hoax (or a practical joke of some sort), the latest 'spin' on the story is that Dr. Slaughter may have adorned the skeleton with a breast plate and bogus ceremonial sword to make it appear to be a work of art. Perhaps this was an attempt to disguise the creature's true identity from sinister ufological forces, like the MIB or whoever."
"...What physical proof has Barry Greenwood discovered to establish Mail Jocks as the real meaning behind the term 'MJ'? I know you give Barry considerable praise for his tenacity in getting to the bottom of things, but his verbal attack on a former (?) CIA operative might someday find him looking up to see the bottom. Something to consider!"Back to the 'Mail Jocks' theory - pure poppycock! I have not only credible documents but physical evidence to prove his claims are very questionable indeed, in the MJ-12 case. The military records, birth certificate and New Mexico driver's license I possess...very clearly define M.J. as me, Miller Johnson...The number 12, however, is personal information:
"Well, the Japanese FUGO balloons during World War II and the later Roswell UFO crashes couldn't do it, but the Forestry Service finally did it - burn down the historic Los Alamos A-Bomb building facilities!"My latest theory on the Roswell UFO is that a couple of escaped monkeys from a Los Alamos lab hijacked a Northrop Wing experimental aircraft at White Sands and crashed it near Roswell!..."
"Enclosed are formatted copies of your entries in the Encyclopedia, for your review and approval. Please mark anything that you would like to correct or change."Also, I would not mind if you gave me a plug in 'Saucer Smear' regarding the final call for papers (deadline: June 15th, 2000). Anyone who would like to contribute entries and be included in the new Encyclopedia should contact me pronto!..."
"You're right about the trend in UFO sightings. The nuts-and-bolts cases just aren't there any more. Nothing like the Cash/Landrum case, in which you could investigate burn marks, medical effects, etc. That's why a publication like 'International U.F.O. Reporter', which aspires to be scientific, is reduced to dredging up and debating old cases. By contrast there's just nothing to be said about twenty thousand housewives (or househusbands!) who say aliens visit them in their dreams!John Keel would say that the whole phenomenon has puckishly withdrawn to the ethereal realm just to outwit and confuse us, perhaps just as scientific measuring has become more sophisticated. Another explanation is that so much of it was Cold War prototype testing - as I'm sure Cash/Landrum was - and that now the end of the Cold War and greater cloaking technology has taken those test craft out of public view or curtailed the phenomenon entirely..."
"...There are two clear-cut and empirical lines between a 'cult' and a 'religion': (a) membership (voters) and (b) bank account, (b) being a function of (a). If a group has enough members to influence elections, it will also have a large bank account, and these two factors will guarantee that the politicians, the cops and the corporate media will treat it with respect, as a 'religion'. With few members and little money, the same group could be called a 'cult' and treated accordingly, even to the extent of toasting, roasting and charbroiling, as in Waco."This line remains obvious and visible to all observers; the only problem arises when people try to draw a less 'materialistic', more metaphysical distinction between one gang of True Believers and another. Materialistic questions can be answered - e.g., 'Does that match-box have any matches left in it?' Metaphysical questions about 'mind control' or any other immeasurable 'entity' or 'essense' cannot be answered, and the best that can be said of them is that arguing about them has provided a certain amount of intellectual entertainment, or combat, for a few thousand years, for those who enjoy that kind of passtime. Sort of like chess, you know.
"I have no commitment to materialism as a philosophy which pretends to explain everything (which no correlation of words can ever do, and a philosophy is never more than a correlation of words). But, restricting myself to the 'materialistic'/scientific method of asking questions that have definite experiential answers, I observe no difference in operation between 'cults' or 'religions'. Catholic nuns and priests vowing celibacy seem no weirder or less weird than Heaven's Gate members who also make that choice. Mormon extraterrestrial cosmology seems as goofy as Scientology, etc. Religions and cults all use the same techniques of brain damage or 'mind control', i.e., they all instill B.S. - Belief Systems..."
"For some time now, our mutual friend Carlos Mentira has been kind enough to forward copies of your amusing little journal to me at my secret headquarters in the former Soviet zone of Vienna. I have taken great pleasure in them, especially during the times I must spend hiding from the authorities in the sewers of this lovely city. Appropriate, don't you agree?"...I note with surprise that you only reluctantly accept the mantle of Reigning Court Jester of ufology. You should not. After all, the ancient tradition of the wise fool, he who could with impunity tell a crowned head The Truth - including especially pointing out his majesty's own stupidities - is an honorable and most valuable one. The jester combines wisdown with humor to convey unpalatable realities. Isn't that what you do, O Wise Ufool?
"By the way, I must concur in Carlos' admonition to lay off the Not-So-Amusing Randi. He can't help it if he's a compulsive-obsessive jerk. Besides, devoting so much space to a washed-up conjurer only diminishes you, Your Jestfulness!"
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