JOHN KEEL NOT AN AUTHORITY ON ANYTHING

http://x-tige.com/events/danilo-gabrielli-fallwinter-2012/attachment/cast-of-real-ny-housewives-danilo-fw12-runway-show-5/ The next entry in John’s record fills us in on some activity in Point Pleasant. There are updates from Linda Scarberry and Connie Carpenter, and Doris Lilly has an encounter with a classic bedroom visitant in a checkered shirt. (Doris Lilly was the woman who had found wooden plugs in her phone.)

John goes on to report a long conversation with Apol/Appell, who tells him many sensational tales about Mothman — or, more precisely, Mothmen. It’s not clear if John talked directly with Apol, or only through Jaye Paro. I suspect it was through Jaye.

John’s notes continue with some odd reports from his girlfriend Gerda, followed by a call from Joe Henslik. Gerda was a dancer, and, as far as I know, not particularly interested in UFOs. Henslik was a contactee; elsewhere in his notes, John dismissed his story as a hoax.

There’s also a letter from Apol/Appel/Appell, as well as a second questionnaire. I posted the questionnaire over here; John kept a separate file on Apol.

John had sent a letter to Jaye Paro’s androids, suggesting plans for a public UFO demonstration. This is Apol’s answer, which, as usual, is frustratingly opaque. It does mention “three in dark clothing,” which I assume is a reference to the Men In Black.

We have here the next excerpt from John’s “Special Cases” file, his investigation of contactees in Long Island in 1967. Jaye Paro has already had an unsettling encounter with a strange woman in a library and a clothing store, and now meets her again. She also has her first encounter with Mr. Apol. All of this was eventually incorporated into Chapter 15 of The Mothman Prophecies. This is a fuller account, including Apol’s odd questions to Jaye.

John states here that he thinks she’s telling the truth, but expresses reservations elsewhere in his files.

I had posted a photocopy of Jaye Paro’s sketch of her alien/android contact Agar a while back; I’ve turned up the original, so I’ll post it here as well.

The sketch was included in a letter to John, purportedly from Mr. Apol, a dapper humanoid who also makes a memorable appearance in The Mothman Prophecies.  John carried on a fascinating correspondence with this enigmatic character, who always wrote in crudely lettered red pencil.  As I said in the last post, I think he was a product of Paro’s imagination or subconscious; at any rate, all of John’s dealings with him were through her.

“Tim’na” was Apol’s name for Paro, by the way.  I’ll transcribe the letter, since aliens have notoriously poor penmanship; I will, however, keep the eccentric spelling and punctuation.  This is a good sample of the kind of material that John was contending with on a daily basis in 1967.

TO JOHN –

GREETINGS AGAIN – HELEN OBERMEYER HAS TURNED AGAINST US – SHE HAS BEEN INSINCEAR WITH ME – FOR NOW – BE CAREFULL WHAT YOU SAY TO HER – TRUST HER NOT – HER MIND IS NOT SHARP AN CLEAR – SHE DOES NOT THINK AS WELL AS THE OTHERS – WE SHALL JUST WATCH QUIETLY NOW – LOUISE IS STILL DOING WELL – IN HER OWN WAY SHE HAS HELPED US MUCH – SHE I A SINCERE ONE – SHE IS NOT ALWAYS AWARE OF HER ACTIONS – PAT DESPOSITO WILL SOON GO ON TO W VIRGINIA – RUTH WILL STAY ON L-I – YOU MUST WARN TIMNA THAT BERNHARDT IS SECRETLY SNOOPING AROUND FOR INFO ON MT. MISERY – HE LOOK TO WRITE ALL ABOUT THE MOUNTAIN – DO NOT LET HIM STEEL STORY – I HAVE ENCLOSED A SKETCH OF AGGARR THAT TIMNA DID WHEN YOU WERE AWAY – ITS A WONDERFUL LIKENESS – AGGARR WAS WILD ABOUT IT – TIMNA IS GOOD WITH HER HANDS – NOT ONLY DOES SHE THROW THINGS WELL BUT SHE THROWS THINGS WELL TO – WATCH FOR ANOTHER AIR DISASTER BEFORE CHRISTMAS – LIGHTS WILL STOP – AN THE CITY WILL AGAIN GO INTO DARKNESS – GREENFIELD WHO ARRANGED YOUR TALK IS NOT – BY THE WAY – A CONTACTEE –

AND LT. FRANK DAVIS IS BACK ON L-I- AGAIN – GLADYS HAS CONTACTED BERNHARDT – WE HAVE CONTACTED DON – OH YOUR MAIL IS OK NOW –

I HOPE TIMNA WILL SOME DAY DRAW ME – WILL YOU ASK HER PLEASE –

USA

USA IS GOING TO BACK DOWN IN VIETNAM – COME ABOUT LATE 1968 EARLY 69 – 1969 UPSWEEP OF CHINESE INFLUENCE, AUTHORITY AN PRESTIGE – A DEAL WILL BE ARRANGED BETWEEN – USA – AN CHINA: FORMOSA AND A PLACE AT THE UNITED NATIONS, IN EXCHANGE FOR PEACE IN VIET NAM

I CAN GIVE TIMNA PREDICTIONS UP TO 1976 AN 77

QUEEN FARAH DIBA IS NOW AT A COMPARATIVELY fatEFUL  PERIOD OF LIFE.  WATCH FOR EVENTS OVER THE NEXT 12/18 MONTHS WHICH FATEFULLY AFFECT HER FUTURE –

I MUST END NOW – I AM DEEPLY TIRED –

EVERYTHINGS GOOD

APPELL

I apologize to Keel fans for not posting in August. I’ve been busy with my own many projects, some Fortean, some not. But I’m back, and here to offer you a definite curiosity: a treatment for a zombie film by John Keel.

In 1965, John was toiling away in NYC as a freelance writer. He had had a spell of writer’s block after the publication of Jadoo, and had not yet started investigating UFOs. One of the jobs he undertook was a treatment for a remake of White Zombie, the 1932 movie starring Bela Lugosi. The rights to it were owned by Sherman S. Krellberg, a film distributor and occasional producer; among other things, he distributed the Hopalong Cassidy films and repackaged Flash Gordon serials. (You can find more about him in this description of his papers at the Library of Congress).

The film was never made, but here’s John’s idea of what it could have been.

And here’s the ending of John’s early story, “The End of the Hunt.”

(A personal note: I apologize for posting less frequently recently. I’ve been busy!)

John’s early Mothman article continues, with more sightings, eye burn for Connie Carpenter and John himself, and the absence of sandhill cranes. Paul Yoder and Benjamin Enochs, by the way, didn’t make it into The Mothman Prophecies. I apologize for the incomplete line at the bottom of p. 12. I guess John put his carbon in wrong.

This is the last letter from Carl Allen, and the last item in John’s “Jessup-Allende” file. Allen is upset that John doubted his identity, and outlines all the reasons why he must be the real Carl Allen. He apparently didn’t realize that other people were impersonating him or spreading rumors about him, and saw John’s skepticism as a personal attack. The story of the Philadelphia Experiment and the Varo edition was riddled with the usual ufological confusion, and one can only feel sorry for Allen for getting in over his head. I apologize for the bleed-through; I hope it’s still readable.

Part 6 of “The Answer,” John’s private file of his conclusions about the UFO enigma, as of 1967, is only two pages. He describes the “Supreme Leader” and the leader’s identification as “God,” and speculates about the original and location of the Androids, stressing that “it is only a theory.” The questions he cites were asked in a number of questionnaires to “Apol,” communicated through Jaye Paro.