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• A "SMEAR" EXCLUSIVE! DR. BRUCE MACCABEE TAKES A LIE DETECTOR TEST REGARDING THE CLASSIC GULF BREEZE UFO CASE!
• TIDBITS OF TRASH
• Pflock Ptalk - TO THE FUTURE THROUGH THE PAST
• MISSIVES FROM THE MASSES

One of the experts who came forth to examine these photographs was atmospheric physicist Dr. Bruce Maccabee, who is affiliated with MUFON and is still active in the UFO field. His conclusion was that the photos are genuine, whereas other experts disagreed! Ed's first book, written with his wife Frances, came out in 1990 and was ca31ed "The Gulf Breeze Sightings". For this Ed received a publisher's advance of about $200,000, and Maccabee received a net payment of $18,000 for contributing one key chapter.

One Gulf Breeze skeptic in particular has insisted that Maccabee received a "pay-off" of $5,000 or more, "under the table" for his contribution, in addition to the $18,000 that everyone agrees about. This skeptic is named Jerry Black, and he is a stubborn soul. He has pursued the matter all these years, and on May 10th of this year, Dr. Maccabee took an agreed-upon lie detector test, paid for by Black, and administrated by a polygraph expert named Don Seiler. There were three questions in the test, worded as follows:

1. Before July 1st, 1988, were you offered any amount of money to write a chapter for the Ed Walters book?
2. Before July 1st, 1988, were you offered any amount of money to write a chapter for the Ed Walters book or for any other reason?
3. Before July 1st, 1988, did you receive any amount of money to write a chapter for the Ed Walters book?

Obviously, the $18,000 Maccabee admits receiving was after July 1st, 1988. Actually, it was in January of 1989. He therefore answered NO to all the questions! Don Seiler sent a detailed written report on the test to Black and Maccabee, which we have not seen. However, the gist of the conclusion was: INCONCLUSIVE. This means that nothing has been proven either way, in regard to Maccabee's veracity. Black wasted his money and Maccabee wasted his time!

We talked by phone recently to both gentlemen about all this. Black seems frustrated and disappointed, whereas Maccabee seems light-hearted about the result. Black wanted the questions worded differently, but apparently they had to be worded so that the answer would be based on a very simple concept; the answers to more complicated questions would be harder to judge.

Dr. Maccabee is not sure why the result was "inconclusive", but he says that it may have been because he was somewhat spooked by the polygraph device, and also, he chose to give his answers very slowly. Whatever the reason, this leaves the controversy unresolved. In our opinion, polygraphs are not 100% accurate, and even a definite result one way or the other would not have settled anything, nor proved anything.

Regarding the Gulf Breeze sightings of 1988-1989, there will always be True Believers and True Nonbelievers. Our own opinion is definitely negative, though we have met Ed Walters several times and liked him personally. We have detailed opinions which are expressed eloquently in Chapter 15 of our book (still in print!) Shockingly Close to the Truth!", written with "Smear" contributing editor Karl Pflock.

Our thanks to Bruce Maccabee for his cooperation for this article.

• Researcher Tom Benson has sent us a wonderful UFO-related story from Roswell. It seems that a man named David Baumann has a permanent attraction there, which sounds like it is basically a haunted house, on Main Street, where tourists go in and are grappled by fake aliens of various kinds. The attraction is called Alien Encounter, and has been duplicated elsewhere, in theme parks and such.

  In front of Alien Encounter sits Fred, a 50-pound mannequin (a word we misspelled in our last issue!), designed to look like a grey space alien. This is part of the permanent display. Fred sits reclining in a wheel chair on the sidewalk in front of the building. Baumann tells us tongue-in-cheek by phone that Fred was injured in the 1947 crash, and he needs a special diet and such. Anyhow, on the afternoon of July 17th - long after the recent annual Roswell Festival - two men pulled up in a white & brown pick-up truck and whisked Fred, wheelchair and all, into the vehicle and quickly sped away!

  Baumann is concerned that his other-worldly friend will be mistreated, and hopes to get him back soon. He did not mention whether or not any reward is being offered, but the value of the mannequin plus wheelchair is about $3,500. He says that on about July 21st, a young man called on the phone, apologized, and promised to bring Fred back; but so far he has not done so. One assumes that the caper was a teen-aged prank of some sort. Again tongue-in-cheek, Baumann tells us that the wheelchair is important, because Fred can't get around without it!

  This theft may be the first case of humans abducting an alien, instead of vice versa!

  It is obvious that the serious (?) side of the alleged Roswell crash has gradually been overshadowed by good-natured parody, such as Baumann's...

• We have a recent communique from Pat Marcattilio of New Jersey, also known to himself and a few others as "Mr. UFO". His group is called "The UFO/ET World Traveling Museum & Library of Scientific Anomalies", and Pat has hosted a "UFO/ET Congress" near Trenton twice a year for the past several years. Your humble "Smear" editor has attended a few of these, sometimes as a speaker and sometimes merely as an awed observer. We had thought that the last of this series of conventions was the one this past March, as Pat is retiring from his job at the post office and has made plans to travel. However, according to the above-mentioned blurb, there will be another conclave on the weekend of November 6th and 7th, at the same dreary Days Inn in Bordontown, N.J. that has hosted most of the earlier ones. No list of speakers is yet available...

• As if in retaliation to the above-mentioned "Museum & Library of Scientific Anomalies", the dreaded CSICOP organization is expanding its display of non-anomalous items at a public location in Amherst, New York, near their Headquarters. On hand are "snake oil and other murky cure-alls, fortune-telling tools, and a bug-eyed alien", among other exhibits. The purpose is to hammer home to the public how gullible they would have to be to ever believe or even half-believe in such things. The article we have received unfortunately does not list all of the "harmful" objects on display, but we are intrigued by the implication: Anything that is not currently endorsed by mainstream science is to be shunned and ridiculed! There is no "grey area", not even for grey aliens! (Thanks to Denis Corey.)...

• Here's another vaguely UFO-related obituary, from July llth. It seems that death has come at age 94 to billionaire Laurence Rockefeller, the oldest grandchild of the original John D. Rockefeiler- founder of the Standard 0il Company over a century ago.

  Laurence was best known for his efforts at environmental conservation, and he also made some astute investments in major American corporations. Not mentioned in the obituary is the relatively small sums that the man spent on ufological projects in recent years. One of these was a report called "Best Evidence" that Rockefeller paid for. Others involved saucerers Peter Sturrock and also Scott Jones, as well as the "Coalition" that we know once existed between MUFON and several other saucer groups. Why no mention of any of this in the obituary? Possibly it was a well-intentioned effort to keep his image clean!

  Laurence hosted several informal UFO conferences at his home in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where selected researchers were invited. It is not clear what his own views were, but it seems that he never reached any firm conclusions. (Wise, indeed!)...

• In our last issue we told you about Bob Shell, one of the alleged photo experts on the notorious Alien Autopsy Film several years ago, who has recently been charged with felony murder in the death of a young female assistant. There is no connection between these two events, except to show that perhaps Shell is not of the highest moral fiber or whatever.

  We now have a similar scenario regarding a (former) teenager in Columbus, Ohio, who in 1984 achieved her "fifteen minutes of fame" by supposedly teleporting objects across her living room without touching them. There's a famous photo of Tina Resch sitting in a stuffed chair while a telephone and its cord fly by. Her hands are in the air, far from the moving objects.

  Many reporters and psychic investigators came to her home, and for awhile she received the kind of attention she perhaps craved. One of the researchers was James "The Amusing" Randi, who, however was known to be extremely "negative" (which he certainly is!) and was not allowed inside the house at all, much to his disappointment.

  Tina was soon caught cheating, and all but her most ardent supporters lost interest. Many years went by, and in 1992 she was charged with the beating death of her 2-year-old daughter. Tina was given a sentence of life plus twenty years, and just recently was refused parole. She, of course, maintains her innocence.

  What is the connection between the teenaged teleportation and this dreadful murder? Probably none, but we find it to be an interesting story...

• Remember the "Phoenix (Arizona) Lights" UFO incident of March 13th 1997? Some said they were all military flares, others thought that at least some of them were truly mysterious, and then there are the True Believers. One of said Believers is a woman named Lynne Kitei, who saw what she considers to be otherworldly lights over Phoenix on several different occasions, and she definitely gives them a spiritual meaning. How mere lights in the sky can convey a "soul level sense of enlightening connectedness" we do not know, but her videos are available at www.thephoenixlights.net.

  Ms. Kitei has also written a book, appropriately called "The Phoenix Lights", which is available from Hampton Roads for $16.95. She is currently peddling her book full time, having given up a medical career in order to do this. She will be one of the festured speakers at the forthcoming National UFO Conference in Hollywood, California. (Our thanks to Scott Elliott)...

• Another new book of more than passing interest is "The World's Best UFO Cases", written by Dwight Connelly, who is the esteemed current editor of the MUFON UFO Journal. We were pleased & flattered to receive a free copy of this, as our support for MUFON through the yeses has been somewhat less than wildly enthusiastic. Also, we are mentioned in the index!

  Connelly carefully states that though MUFON cooperated fully in the preparation of this book, the opinions he expressed are his own, etc., etc.

  One case that is mercifully omitted is the Ed Walters Gulf Breeze, Florida ufological events of the late 1980s; and then there is one case that in our humble opinion should have been mercifully omitted. It is the continuing, never-ending debate over the "Ramey Memo", which is all too familiar to hard-core Roswell fans. "Experts" can quarrel till the end of timeabout the exact words in this Memo, but the fact is that most of the words are too indistinct to be anything better than an ink-blot test. And we continue to wonder why a competent general would have been carrying a sensitive Memo in his hand during a press photo opportunity in the first place!

  Apparently Dwight Connelly's favorite case of all is the Kelly Kahill abduction story from Australia in the year 1993. This contains multiple witnesses, missing time, and other good things, but there is also, admittedly, a lot of weirdness involved, and the editor of this tome admits that this adds complications. The cover of the book features a crude drawing of this case - three purple & red alien creatures, standing under a red & yellow spaceship with blue & green rays coming from it. Very colorful if true.

  Among his Best Cases Connelly includes crop circles, animal mutilations, alien implants, Bigfoot, and other topics that are on the fringe of UFO research. We are not ridiculing him. He has done the best he can, and admits that there is no "smoking gun".

  This is a worthwhile little book - 235 pages softcover, and can be obtained for $11.95 from Bookseller, Inc; 14026 Ridgelawn, Martinsville, Illinois 62442. It is a very good read, no matter what your point of view on all this may be!...

• Here's disappointing news for saucer fiends: Certain mainstream astronomers now feel that our solar system may be unique after all, despite the discovery of at least 120 other systems with planets. All of the other solar systems that have been found have big, gassy planets circling too close to their star to allow them to be anything like Earth or its fellow planets. Most of these giant planets have eliptical orbits rather than circular. This could mean that astronomers have been wrong in assuming all planets in our galaxy formed in basically the same way.

  Don't be disheartened, however. We'll bet that further research will discover planets that are a lot like ours. We're willing to bet that the Space People are out there somewhere, whether or not they are currently visiting Earth! (Thanks to Denis Corey.)...

  Below left we see researcher George Filer, known as "Director, MUFON Eastern Region", posing with "Debbie D", one of Bob Durant's fabulous stable of Roswell girls. They were attending Pat Marcattilio's most recent convention.

  Filer has a column called "Filer's Files" (clever name!) which appears in every monthly issue of the MUFON UFO Journal. It gives raw data on a large number of recent UFO cases, as does a similar column he does weekly on the Net.

  People chatting on the Net have pointed out that Filer sometimes refers to an organization called the "Filer Research Institute about which little is known. Is it an acttual organization with an office, board of directors, etc? Or is it (more likely) merely a sham? Long-time researcher Ray Stanford states: "I think you will find out it is just as imaginary as are all the ancient carvings and letters of a terrestrial alphabet that Filer perceives in almost every Mars photo that comes along...Filer announced his 'Institute' at the same time he released to the media his alleged evidence of ancient, intelligent life in JPL's Mars images. Maybe he felt the media would swallow his claims more easily if he appeared to be with a research institute, abeit one with his own name."

  In any case, Filer has certainly made a splash in ufology, and we wonder why the Directors of the other MUFON Regions (central and western) are never heard from, whoever they may be!

• A previous MUFON "Eastern Region Director" was the colorful Colonel Donald Ware, who - to make a long story short - became so Far Out in his views that he was eventually relieved of his high post, and disappeared into ufological oblivion!...

• Below right is Larry Bryant, the maverick serious saucer researcher who has been thrashing away at government secrecy for lo these many years. Larry has an article in the current (August) issue of Fate Magazine called "A Retrospective Review of the UFO Habeas Corpus Petition", in which he reviews a UFO-related petition that he actually got into a federal court back in 1983.

  By distorting the meaning of the Latin term "habeas corpus" ("you may have the body"), Larry took this term to refer even to alien bodies, dead or alive, which might have been found at Roswell or elsewhere. Needless to say, the court did not agree with his interpretation, and his petition was duly thrown out of court!

  Very recently, as mentioned in our last issue of "Smear", Larry has accused our beloved President of lying about his reasons for invading Iraq, and he claims that this is an impeachable offense. He is suing Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld over this because a military magazine refused to print a paid advertisement he submitted, in which he asked for said impeachment! How long will it be, we wonder, before federal agents, perhaps dressed in Black, knock gently at Larry Bryant's door? We are being semi-facetious in this remark, but - who knows? (Shudder!)

It's no news to loyal "Smear" non-subscribers that I'm convinced the answer to the UFO mystery almost surely lies in the vast body of case material from the Golden Age of Saucers, the mid-1940s through the late 1960s/early 1970s. In recent years, it appears other ufologists have come to similar conclusions. More and more, the focus of UFO research and its published results is historical, as our best and brightest (a very small club) mine the rich veins of evidence from days gone by for meaningful data and apply new thinking to what they find. Two outstanding examples are Richard Hall's new book from the Fund for UFO Research, "Alien Invasion or Human Fantasy? - The 1966-1967 UFO Wave", and Herb Taylor's monumental satellite-object study (see his article in the next "IUR"). I'll have more to say about both in future columns.

This new historical emphasis, reminiscing conversations with other old ufarts and, no doubt, a new appreciation of my own earthly mortality brought on by my current struggle with the aftermath of spinal surgery, has brought on a flood of nostalgic memories. I find myself thinking back to the late 1940s, when as a boy of five or six, I first heard tales of crashed saucers...to my sighting in 1951 or '52...to the Flatwoods Monster, the "Washington Nationals", and the Florida scoutmaster saucer "attack", all in 1952...to the eager anticipation of the return of the Brush Creek saucer in the summer of 1953...reading- devouring- the books of Ed Ruppelt and Donald Keyhoe (and, blush, George Adamski)...and more, on through the Fifties and into the early Sixties. I find myself regarding them as I did then, reliving the feelings and sense of wonder that reports - and my own sighting! - of these strange visitors inspired, recalling the high hopes of an imaginative boy and teenager that They would soon land on the White House lawn - or better yet, in the vacant lot around the corner.

Those were simpler and less cynical times, or so they seemed from my youthful perspective. They are also times now all but forgotten by today's generation of saucerers, much to their and ufology's detriment. So in my next few columns, I will share some of my recollections of those days and what it felt like to gather around a portable radio with family and friends, listening to a reporter broadcasting live from the foothills of California's High Sierra without a hint of ridicule in his voice: "The men say the flying saucer has showed up here on the same date and at the same time for two months in a row. On the last visit, a little man dressed in green was seen to descend from it and dip water from the stream. Will he return this evening?..."

Every so often over the years, we have brought you reproductions of paintings by a Hoboken, New. Jersey artist named David Huggins. This unusual man claims to have had countless experiences throughout his lifetime with beings from another realm, whom he usually meets on astral voyages while in a dream-like state, while in bed at night. Above we have a black & white rendition of a brightly-colored recent painting, in which a woman he calls "Crescent" speaks uplifting words of wisdom to an assembled group which includes a number of earthlings such as himself. The tall figure at the far left is an insect being from that realm, and next to him is a creature that Hudgins calls "the little hairy guy". He nas seen these same creatures many times before. We have never known quite what to make of all this, but Huggins is a sincere truth-seeker who has never tried to exploit his unique experiences. We appreciate his kindness in sharing some of his strange adventures with us!

• We are delighted to have a letter from famed British ufologist JENNY RANDLES, part of which is reproduced below:

  "I wanted to drop you a line for a number of reasons, not the least of which is to include a small donation toward your costs. Now that I no longer have "Northern UFO News" to send in exchange, this is the least that I can do. Especially since I always enjoy reading the no-nonsense, insightful and otherwise unmissable content of 'Smear'. Keep up the unparalleled good work.

  "I also wanted to fill you in a little on how things are going in the United Kingdom and with me. Ufology has gone in a strange direction- almost underground. Everything seems to happen on the Net these days, and the era of big groups, conferences, lots of magazines and in-field investigations almost seems to have faded into history. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing. Ufology was ripe for a period of soul searching and to get back to the basics of what we are supposed to be doing. I think we lost that somewhere along the way, and in about 2000/2001 - when the world changed in so many different ways - ufology became less of a relevance to many people. Suddenly it dawned on folks that 'They' were not about to land, there were no massive secrets being covered up, and decades of false promises and expectations were not going to be met by the UFO community..."

  Jenny goes on to explain that, because she is taking care of her seriously ill mother full-time, she now has little time for writing and none for going to conferences, etc. Pity! - Editor.

• Super-skeptic MARTIN KOTTMEYER writes:

  "John Harney's review of William Birnes' UFO Encyclopedia seems too cheritable. He says it is not the worst UFO encyclopedia around, but I don't see how that is possible. He sees the omission of Jerry Clark as a bit of mischief, but there is just so much blundering in that book I feel Clark may honestly have tumbled away unnoticed in the mess they created!

  "I was able to see the transit of Venus on the sunrise of June 8th. It happened just as astronomers said it would. It should amuse you to know that the ZetaTalk website is claiming that Venus did NOT transit and that NASA and the establishment are conspiring to hide all the astronomical mayhem they allege is accompanying the passage of 'Planet X' thru the solar system.

  "Oh, did you hear that Wendy Connors - self-described as open-minded, learning, and journeying beyond the lies of science - has determined that all debunkers are certainly deluded, small minded, and hollow? Ufology marches on!

• Finally, GAINES CROOK writes as follows:

  "In your card, you appear to say that there is no reality unless it is joined by proof. I strongly disagree with this point of view. For over 4 1/2 billion years, the universe got along fiust fine with its reality, without any attempt by mankind to prove that it was real. These attempts at 'proofs' started sometime about 2500 years ago, and we have had philosophers strutting around ever since...

  "My answer is that UFOs constitute the greatest enigma encountered by mankind in our time or probably any other time. We cannot expect for the solution of an enigma structured totally outside of our Earthly standards and environment to be solved in terms of those same Earthly standards and environment...

  If we are patient and stick to the goal, it might only be about 20 years before we begin to understand what it is all about. On the other hand, it may be a thousand years, but there is no reason to give up. After all, from the standpoint of today's science, it is the most interesting subject that one can imagine!..."

NUMBER'S UP Route 666 from Gallup, New Mexico, to Monticello, Utah - often dubbed the "Highway to Hell" or "Satan's Highway", and notorious for its high accident rate- has been renamed Route 491 after 77 years. Since the planned change was announced, nearly all the old highway signs were stolen. The ceremony took place on a stretch of the highway south of Shiprock, a Navajo sacred site, on 30 July. Albuquerque Journal, 18 July; [R] Tallahassee Democrat, 31 July 2003.

SELF REGARDING Two of a Swedish firefighter's multiple personalities have fallen in love and married. Bjorn Ullberg, a gay man diagnosed with multiple-personality syndrome, shares his body with Lars, a fast-talking used-car salesman and Siggy, a shy bookworm. "He somehow found a minister who was willing to perform the ceremony", said Ullberg's exasperated psychiatrist. The Week (New York), 22 Dec 2003.

TURKISH ENCOUNTER An Austrian tourist with dyed red hair, hoop earrings, facial piercinq and a black cloak was stoned by Turks who thouqht he was a Satanist or an alien. Sascha Mariacher, 28, who was visiting his Turkish father in Edremit, 120 miles (193km) southwest of Istanbul, was taken into protective custody until the angry crowd dispersed. He was not seriously injured. [AP] 29 Oct 2002.

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