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• RE-HASH OF THE FORTIETH NATIONAL UFO CONFERENCE IN NORTH HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA
• MISCELLANEOUS RAVINGS
• Pflock Ptalk - WERE THEY SPACE GIRLS, COLONEL?
• MISSIVES FROM THE MASSES

Unfortunately, the size of the crowd was a great disappointment - less than fifty people! Whether this was the result of inadequate publicity, or simply because hardly anyone was interested in coming, we do not know. Most of the presentations were very good, and they were all professionally recorded on videotape for posterity.

Ann Druffel' s talk was, quite naturally, about her brand new book "Firestorm'; which is a detailed history of the life and premature death of Dr. James McDonald. A man named Terry Hansen gave a (to us) unconvincing lecture about "media complicity" in the alleged UFO cover-up by our government. Famed MJ-12 researcher Robert Wood spoke about updated information regarding this endless stream of documents, which now number no less than 103, consisting of 3,766 pages. Interestingly, the very first MJ-12 material was released to the ublic by William Moore in 1987, at a NUFOC in Burbank, California. Efforts to persuade Moore to come out of retirement to speak at the present convention were in vain.

The star of this year's NUFOC event was famed abductee Travis Walton of Arizona, author of "Fire in the Sky", from which a movie was made. Walton convinced your editor that he probably believes everything he is saying, but he still has a chip on his shoulder regarding criticism, and is bitter at the debunkers. He apparently thinks that your editor is in league with Phil Klass, who debunked the case soon after it occurred in 1975, but the truth is that we have never had much to say about the Walton case at all!

Brian Boldman, all the way from North Carolina, spoke on "angel hair", a little remembered aspect of the UFO mystery which nevertheless is very interesting and significant. Boldman has a list of over 200 cases over the years, though very few have occurred lately. Abduction researcher Derrel Sims spoke on implants and such, and made a good impression on the audience. Then there was the Reverend Harrison Bailey, who talked about weird "shapeshifting entities" which he has encountered at various times during his lifetime. We missed part of his rant, and it remains unclear to us whether he is technically an abductee or a mere contactee.

In our opinion the best presentation was given by Eric Kelson, Ph.D., who has made a very detailed investigation of the series of four photos taken by a man named Van Heflin in southern California in the year 1965. Strangely, the original pictures disappeared soon after the event, but were returned semi-mysteriously many years later, in 1993. Using all the tools of photo enhancement, Kelson eventually concluded that these are authentic pictures of an nknown object in the daylight sky. He refuses to speculate as to what this object really is - and that, of course, is the proper scientific attitude.

Late Sunday afternoon, the convention concluded with an abduction panel consisting of Walton, Sims, Bailey, and Druffel, moderated by Mark Hunziker of Los Angeles MUFON. Your editor had been invited to participate, but since we know precious little about the complex abduction phenomenon, we decided to give our seat to Ann Druffel, who specializes in that sort of thing.

Even though the turn-out was so small, a few unexpected people there are worthy of mention: Phyllis Galde of FATE Magazine; Tim Beckley ("Mr. UFO") all the way from New York City to sell his New Age books; Molly Hansen, former lady friend of the notorious Erik Beckjord; Ralph Coon, producer of the documentary "Whispers from Space" about the life & times of the late Gray Barker; Greg Bishop of "The Excluded Middle", with whom we did a radio interview Sunday evening; and Don Ecker & Vickie Cooper of "UFO Magazine", who basically refused to speak to your editor, even when seated at the same table! It does seem that we have made a few enemies in the UFO field over the years!

As "Permanent Chairman" of the NUFOC, your editor looks onward to wonder what sort of convention we can conjure up for next year. This time we had an "angel", who shall remain unnamed here, and in this way all the speakers' travel expenses and hotel bills were covered, even though the event obviously lost money. We won't necessarily be lucky enough to find such a person again. If any readers have a constructive thought on this subject, please let us know. As it looks right now, there may not be a 41st NUFOC!

LEFT: A grim-looking Derrel Sims (left) and Travis Walton {right) sit on the abduction panel, under a NUFOC sign on the wall behind them. RIGHT: Angel hair researcher Brian Bo!dman poses with abduction researcher Ann Druffel. (Photos by Guess Whom??)

• We would like to take this opportunity to strongly suggest that if you see something in the newspapers, etc., or on the (cursed) Net that you think would be up our alley, send it along to us! A lot of people hesitate to do so because they assume someone else will send us the same item. Occasionally this happens; and of course we don't print all of the information we receive. But if you will cooperate with us to keep "Smear" rolling along, we would be most sincerely grateful. We might even print your name!...

• In our last glorious issue, under "News Briefies", we ran a summary of the Berwyn Mountains UFO case, from Wales in Great Britain. Now Martin Kottmeyer has kindly sent us a copy of an article by British researcher Andy Roberts called "Fire on the Mountain: The Berwyn UFO Case- a British Roswell?"

  Roberts is a very well known skeptical UFO investigator, and he has gone to a lot of trouble to come up with answers to almost all the questions raised by this classic 1974 event. According to his research there were no alien bodies nor droves of police in the area. This complicated case boils down to three simultaneous unrelated elements: prolific meteor activity that night; an earth tremor which shook a wide area; and poachers with very bright lights. Roberts is to be commended for his work. We met him briefly last year at the annual Fortean Times "UnConvention" in London ....

• MUFON has gone Hollywood, no doubt as part of their continuing effort to raise Money. The August issue of their zine has a cover photo showing, among others, actor Dan Akroyd and Jim Belushi - brother of the late John Belushi. Elsewhere in the issue we learn that Dan has become a Lifetime Member of MUFON, which presumably means he has coughed up one thousand dollars! He will serve as the organization's Hollywood Consultant. (We never realized that a serious, scientific UFO investigative group needs a Hollywood Consultant!)

• The Reverend Doctor Frank E. Stranges phoned us recently to let us know that he is gradually recovering from a series of serious health problems, and expects to be back in his office soon, in Van Nuys, California.

  Frank is the author of the well-known contactee book "Stranger at the Pentagon" and for at least 25 years he has published a quarterly publication called "UFO Journal". His organization is called the National Investigations Committee on Unidentified Flying Objects (NICUFO??) Originally the initials were "NICAP", but he changed the name long ago after strenuous objections from Major Donald Keyhoe's group in Washington, D.C., which was called the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP), if we remember correctly ....

• Rael, founder of the Raelian cult and its spinoff called Clonaid, was recently denied entry to South Korea and was made to move on immediately to another destination. It seems that Rael's entry request was rejected because it was believed he might try to clone humans if allowed into the country. (It really doesn't seem to us that he could do any cloning on a short visit, but apparently the South Korean government didn't want to take any chances!)

• Former (?) multimillionaire Joe Firmage has surfaced with a new concept. He is backing a start-up company that he claims will transform users' Internet experiences "by turning it into a breathtaking three-dimensional environment that mirrors the natural world". The new technology provides a sensory experience and fidelity unmatched by any other visualization technology, he claims. Over the next decade, his combined efforts will yeild a living encyclopedia of more than 400,000 subject-focused portals.

  To us, this sounds almost as good as getting high without drugs!...

• Paul Bennewitz, once the subject of great if fleeting ufological interest, died on June 23rd after a long illness. He was 92. In the late 1970s Bennewitz, a New Mexico physicist-businessman who did a lot of business with Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, thought he had intercepted signals used by extraterrestrials to control abductees. He also reported seeing UFOs flying in and out of highly restricted areas on the base, and he claimed to know of underground alien bases where cows and earthlings became snack food. Bennewitz contacted APRO's Coral and Jim Lorenzen, but surprisingly, they wrote him off as delusional.

  However, because of his scientific background and business connections with them, Kirtland AFB authorities briefly took Bennewitz quite seriously. As a result, he became entangled with the infamous Sgt. Richard Dory and our old friend Bill Moore - adding, some believe, to his existing mental instability. (Our thanks to Karl Pflock for this.)

• The recent deaths of two other people on the periphery of the UFO scene are of interest: Duane Cook, who died at the age of 59, was editor of the Gulf Breeze (Florida) Sentinel at the time of Ed Walters' alleged sightings in 1987 and thereafter. The UFO sightings were of great benefit to the Sentinel's circulation, and the upshot was that for quite awhile, Gulf Breeze was considered the 'UFO capital of the world'. Cook, whom your editor met briefly, was a close friend of Ed Walters. There is little doubt that he either was in on the hoax, or at least felt the whole matter was a good-natured joke.

  The second obituary concerns Dr. Ernest Taves, a psychoanalyst who died at age 87. He was a very close friend of arch-debunker Dr. Donald Menzel, and co-author with Menzel on a book called "The UFO Enigma". We never met Taves, but when Menzel was named as one of the original members of MJ-12, we talked at length with Taves by phone. Talking to him helped convince us that Menzel, whatever his faults, could not reasonably have been a member of MJ-12, assuming that it ever existed. Stanton Friedman, who still insists that his evidence proves Menzel was in MJ-12, never talked to Taves!...

  Lou Farish's August issue of "UFO Newsclipping Service" is full of English translations of weird chupacabras sightings in Chile - too long to go into here. (This monthly compilation of clippings from around the world goes for a hefty five dollars a hit, and comes from #2 Caney Valley Drive, Plumerville, Arkansas 72127.)

  Also included in this issue is a Bigfoot story from China, headlined "Bigfoot Leaves a Big Puddle", and this case is right up our alley, as they say. Six people including a radio reporter claim to have seen an ape-like animal in central China's Shennongjia Nature Reserve. They were in a jeep on a mountain road when they saw something moving quickly away from the road. The creature looked to be a little over five feet tall, with shoulder-length black hair. They found several 12-inch-long footprints, plus a "ten foot long patch of foul smelling urine-like liquid". Presumably some of this was taken for analysis. "An investigation is now in full swing", the report concluded ....

• New York City's famed East Village is coming back to life! Harold Egeln Jr. of S.P.A.C.E. (Search Project for Aspects of Close Encounters) has announced that a UFOrelated art show, featuring mainly the paintings of David Huggins, will take place from August 21st through September 24th, at the Chama Teahouse, 332 East 4th St. If this issue of "Smear" reaches you in time, you might want to drop by.

  "Smear" fans will remember David Huggins as the artist who paints scenes related to his experiences with various entities, and some of his paintings explicitly show his sexual encounters with an alien lady who looks pretty much like an attractive earthling, except for the weird eyes!...

• Somewhere we recently saw a very negative assessment of the possibility of life on Mars, but we didn't bother to read it. The heading was "Mean Scientists lash Hopes of Life on Mars". We preferred, by far, a May 29th clipping included in the most recent issue of Gene Deplantier's little-known science-oriented zine called "Delve". With the screaming headline "Photos Show Mud Flowing on Mars", this article claims that aerial photos of frozen Martian sand dunes have turned up evidence that, every summer, ice melts out of the dunes and sends rivers of mud flowing down the sides!

  If confirmed, this controversial discovery would mark the first time liquid water has been observed on the Red Planet. It is widely agreed that life on other planets would go hand-in-hand with water, just as it does on Earth. The mud flow photos are a source of intense scientific argument, especially as there are similar patterns oh the Moon, which are now known to have been caused by ancient lava flow, not current mud flow. The matter won't be settled any time soon, as, unfortunately, current Mars missions will study other parts of Mars where landings are less risky.

  And did you know that on August 27th, Mars was a mere 34,646,418 miles from Earth - the closest it has been in about 60,000 years? Still not close enough to clearly see the alleged mud, we fear!...

• Pat Marcattilio will be holding his annual Fall flying saucer convention on Oct. 4th and 5th this year, in the same dumpy Days Inn in Bordontown, New Jersey where he has held it many times before. Speakers will include Budd Hopkins and ghost hunter Hans Holzer. We have attended often in the past, but this year we won't be able to make it ....

• Here's a sad note regarding the Loch Ness Monster. Last July the British Broadcasting Corporation sent out a research team which checked the lake thoroughly, with sonar, etc. They found no sign at all of the legendary beast!

There seems to be no tale so discredited, no character so sleazy that far too many in ufoology can't see them for what they are: baad! for The Field. Of course, every subculture has its credulous, who will swallow anything. So it goes. However, there is no excuse when an outfit that purports to be careful, objective, and scientific does so.

Yes, MUFON, it's you I'm referring to - or at least "MUFON Journal" editor Dwight Connelly and Ultimate MUFON Potentate John Schuessler, who approves every word that appears in the "Journal", the voice of MUFON. There have been various MUFONic embarrassments before. Walt Andrus' "alien fossil" and the Gulf Breeze fiasco leap immediately to mind. But Wendelle Stevens?! Geez...

The June 2003 "Journal" featured a Connelly profile of the long-retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and purveyor of hundreds of too-good-to-be-true saucer photos, who, perhaps more fittingly than he realizes, these days looks more like a resurrected Col. Sanders than a former fighter pilot. Connelly repeated without question or shame many of Stevens' most outrageous, decisively discredited, and transparently baseless claims, including: the Blue Beret UFO recovery teams at "Randolf" air field in Texas, 1945; the Project Ptarmigeon (sic), a real weather reconnaissance program, "specially equipped'' B-29 and its UFO-hunting-and-filming mission; and, of course, Billy Meier's spaceships from the Pleiades baloney - not to mention the highly credible person who put Stevens into it - George Adamski disciple Lou Zinstaag.

Not only was there not a word about how most Serious Ufologists consider Stevens one of The Field's least credible figures. There also was no mention of his co-authorship of a book touting the Aztec, New Mexico, saucer non-crash and continuing boostering of that non-event. Wonder why? Also missing was anything about the naughty colonel's taste for nubile underage girls and his imprisonment for indulging it. Again, hmmmm... Wonder why?

As a long-time MUFON member and (tab-dah) Field Investigator, I protest! It is (really past) time for MUFON to consider whether it's this sort of thing that's behind our ever-shrinking membership roster. Or (yikes!) maybe our Powers That Be have already considered and decided this is what MUFON needs to survive, taking a leaf from the playbook of Tim "Give 'Em What They Want" Beckley. If so, now hear this, Dwight & John: It isn't what this MUFONite wants, especially to the tune of $45/year, the new rate Schuessler says is required to avoid "cutting services or quality" ("MUFON Journal", August 2003). Well, let's hope services won't be cut!

• DALE RETTIG writes:

  "I thought you would appreciate the enclosed and could use it in "Smear" - especially now that you are publishing sexual material again. By the way, 'Jasmin' was the best 'piece' you have run since the Adamski Expose issue!

  "All I can say is: At least Bill Clinton had sex with another human being!"

  Dale refers to the Roswell babe pictured on the back page of our July 5th issue. Bill Clinton (allegedly) had sex with female earthlings, but according to the August 5th "Weekly World News", sent along to us by Dale and others, Hillary made it with the ugly alien pictured here! Whee! - Editor.

  
  

• Ace cartoonist MATT GRAEBER writes:

  "The 'SUN' may have set on Phil Klass' newsletter, but the brilliance of its light will illuminate the shadowy world of saucerdom for years to come! Phil (pictured right) was indeed the "Lt. Columbo' of UFO investigation, and like that persistent and annoying sleuth he too knew precisely how to make a 'veracity-challenged' suspect (or self appointed UFO expert) squirm! "Of course, Phil's retirement from the Field will allow ufoology's many bungling 'Inspector Clouseau types' to conjure up even more enthralling tales of those horrid little grays using earth women as intergalactic hussies! Oh Phil, the thought of it is too much to bear!"

• Researcher STEVE DUNN writes:

  "Dear Imperious Leader:

  "I thought you would be interested in the following about Phil Klass, taken from the July 14th, 2003 issue of 'Aviation Week & Space Technology':

  "Philip J Klass, a longtime avionics editor for 'Aviation Week & Space Technology' recently received the Senior Wingman award from Editor-In-Chief David M. North at a ceremony in Washington. Klass was honored for professionalism and teamwork during his 51 years with the magazine. He joined the magazine as avionics editor in early 1952. Klass is credited with popularizing the word 'avionics' to best describe airborne electronics. He later became senior avionics editor and remains a contributing avionics editor." (end of quote from 'Aviation Week'.)

  "There is no mention of his UFO connections, but that's to be expected. That is rectified in your magazine."

• The semi-mysterious HARRY LIME writes as follows:

  "I was most amused to see the latest manifestations of Roswellian hype and your enchantment by them. I refer, of course, to the highly enhanced 'titular' assets of the comely young woman in the photo (July 5th 'Smear') promoting the Durant propaganda video. Those modified mammaries are (too) perfect analogs (physical evidence?) of what the Roswell faithful so fervently cling to in a triumph of inflamed desire over reality!

  "Similarly amusing was Ann Druffel's paranoia-laced letter chastising you for emphasizing the sad truth about James McDonald's demise. Therein, she asserts that Prof. McDonald was 'on his way to probably blowing the whole (UFO) coverup apart'. Yet, according to various writings provided to me by our mutual friend Carlos Mentira, McDonald believed that what others saw as cover-up actually was just typical government screw-up, and to the extent there was any cover-up, it was to hide the screw-up. I wonder - is it Mrs. Druffel's thesis that, in his crusade to get science to take UFOs seriously, McDonald would have inadvertently stumbled upon MJ-12, Element 115, Hangar 18, and Donald Menzel's sketches of REAL Martians?"

• Researcher CHRISTOPHER BURNS writes as follows about Ellen Crystall and the strange Pine Bush, N.Y. phenomena that she researched for many years:

  "On December 16th, 2002 Dr Ellen Crystall passed away from pancreatic cancer at age 52. Known in the UFO community for her investigations into the Pine Bush, New York UFO activity which resulted in her book 'Silent Invasion', she fought the disease with vigor for more than a year before succumbing to it.

  "In addition to her book, which was reprinted several times, she discussed and documented her experiences in the Pine Bush area in her newsletter 'Contactee' and in many lectures during the late 1980s to mid 1990s. A strong-willed person, she firmly stood by her controversial theories on the nature of the UFO phenomenon. Sadly, out of disgust toward the crowds that flocked to Pine Bush after the publication of her book, and from disagreements with others in the Pine Bush UFO community, she largely separated herself from the others who were documenting the Pine Bush activity in the later 1990s, although she continued to journey up to the area. In addition to her interest in the UFO phenomenon, Ellen was an active electronic musician who earned a doctorate in music composition from New York University.

  "Although activity in Pine Bush sharply decreased after 1996, occasional, dramatic sightings are still made in the area. The local group, called U.F.O.S., still hosts monthly discussions on the UFO subject, and interest in the area is sustained in part by those who have just discovered Ellen's book and have visited Pine Bush to see if activity still exists. Although some disagreed with Ellen's beliefs and interpretations of the UFO phenomenon, there are many people who have witnessed in and near Pine Bush the same activity that Ellen describes in 'Silent Invasion', and feel that her book accurately documents the events that have occurred, and occasionally still occur, in the area."

• The infamous ERIK BECKJORD writes:

  "Dear Cumugeon:

  "I have had NO litigation for over 27 years. John Zupansic is wrong. However, I am selling the first alien photos ever taken on eBay, and one can view them on the cursed internet at http://www.beckjord.com/firstalienphotos, and also the famous Bigfoot film, info at http://www.beckjord.com/bigfoot, plus info re my binary message to the aliens in Wiltshire, England this summer, at http://www.beckjord.com/circles.

  "I mean, what's a cool million to some oil sheik??? 'Do it for the oil!'"

  We have a clipping from England regarding Beckjord's "binary message" to the aliens, written on a plastic sheet next to a field near pre-historic burial grounds. According to the article, within a day, an answer arrived in the form of a sculpture in the field next to the message. Ho hum! - Editor.

• Researcher GARY HEMPHILL writes:

  "...I just finished reading 'Shockingly Close to the Truth'. Wow! As they say, 'You done good!' What a trip down memory lane! The road to saucerdom still has all the pot holes, hairpin turns, and dead ends it always had - obstacles I more or less banished to the recesses of my subconscious mind. But as I turned each page of your masterful account of literally the first 50 years of Ufology, I began to regret a decision I made a few years back to get away from the subject. I thought I was over the addiction, my urges sublimated in my mission work laying healing hands on Las Vegas show girls. It just isn't the same!

  "Your soon to be classic book on the subject proved to me that flying saucers is and will always be the second love of my life (what's the first, you ask? Me of course!) I cannot blame you, Misters Moseley and Pflock. I am the addict who sought out his addiction. You guys were just the providers...

  "I don't mean to split hairs, but being the resident Know-It-All in my neighborhood, well, on Page 313 you mentioned that Stanton Friedman coined the maxim: 'Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.' Mr. Friedman must be very old. The writers for the old black and white Charlie than movies used the same line! I thought it was a cool line when I Was in college, and I was in college before breast implants were invented.

  Congratulatlons on 50 years of UFO research! You are the MAN! Thanks for keeping score. You guys write a very good book. Your chronology is timeless!..."

• Researcher DAVID PERKINS writes:

  "...I was disappointed that you couldn't use my NIDS (National Institute of Discovery Science) material in 'Smear'. I totally disagree with your assessment. As for it being too 'technical' - I think the premise is pretty basic. Anyone who calls himself a ufologist should be able to handle a few scientific facts. As for it being 'too far removed from UFOs', I think you are really missing the boat. To my mind, for better or worse, UFOs and mutilations have been forever conjoined. The fact that NIDS would issue such a report after 7 or 8 years of laying low seems like an event of utmost significance to ufology. NIDS is one of the few groups which has actually gone after these issues in a scientific and well-funded manner. We're not talking about about armchair gadflies here! When they say that the human food chain has been compromised and imply that UFOs are somehow part of this process, I would say this would be highly noteworthy. I was hoping to get this material out to your esteemed readership and stir up some discussion on the merit of their claims!..."

  We really regret that the NIDS material seemed too long and complex for our humble format. But we do heartily approve of NIDS and their efforts to investigate matters which mainstream science won't touch! - Editor.

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