JOHN KEEL: NOT AN AUTHORITY ON ANYTHING

This one comes from a copy of The Mothman Prophecies (the IllumiNet edition).

This brief letter from Mary Hyre, postmarked May 2, 1967, shows how difficult the events in Point Pleasant could be for those who lived through them.  In this note, she remembers one of the unusual visitors to her office (whom some of you may recall from Chapter 8 of The Mothman Prophecies).

Here’s a transcription, if you have difficulty with the original:

Dear John,

You know how stupid I am…  My column sunday suddenly dawned on me that could have been the beginning of this whole puzzle here in this area of the headless man, just in case you didn’t read it will send you a clipping of it..  this is in jackson county and part of it is in mason county.  I guess a few people have seen lights as usual being reported.

They will appear now that the weather is beginning to get a little better.  I was out of town monday and the evening also so, so I didn’t have any contacts and sunday I had usch a head ache later in the day, I think I am cracking up I cannot seem to get that thick-glasses man out of my mind, I guess he will be coming for me and if they all look like him I do not want to go.

When they come for me I will let you know.

As ever

Mary Hyre

She enclosed this column, which recounts some earlier ghost stories from the area.

John Keel and Ivan Sanderson met — at least, officially — in 1962. Here’s the initial exchange of letters.

Sanderson’s papers, I understand, have found an online home here.  Good news!

David Letterman interviewed John Keel on July 28, 1980.  They discussed forteana, strange rains, creature sightings — and a cast of a Bigfoot footprint.  Letterman was more curious than dismissive, and John did a great job.  And you can watch it here.

Again, thanks to Anthony Matt and Angela Alverson for technical help.

ADDENDUM:  As Loren Coleman has pointed out, the footprint cast in this clip was actually made by Edward Shipton in Nepal.  It has a troubled history: see here for photos of it, as well as some of the charges of hoaxing.  As was often the case, John made factual errors; the evidence in question is suspect; and he nevertheless made a great case for a Fortean perspective within a mainstream context.  The fact that Forteana is riddled with errors and hoaxes just goes with the territory — and, of course, errors and hoaxes are not unique to Forteana!

Here’s another collaboration between Ed Lord and John Keel: a film portrait of the artists’ community in Provincetown, Mass.  Ed Lord made the film; John provided the narration.  He even recites some of the poetry of Harry Kemp, the “Tramp Poet” of Greenwich Village.

All we had to work with was a video dub of what I assume was an 8mm original.  It’s a bit jumpy at the start; but it settles down soon.  Click here to see it.

The photo above shows John in Provincetown in  August 1963.  And that may have been around the time the film was made.

Thanks to Anthony Matt and Angela Alverson for technical help.

I’ve posted another of the films John that made with Ed Lord.  This one’s called “On Exhibition”; and features John as a bleary drunk confronting the exhibits in the Museum of Modern Art.  John was a teetotaller; which makes his drunk act even more amusing.  The film was a bit too long for YouTube, so I’ve split it in two.  Thanks to Angela Alverson for technical help.  I hope you enjoy it!