JOHN KEEL NOT AN AUTHORITY ON ANYTHING

This letter was published in Gray Barker’s Newsletter, #6, April-May-June 1976. A few footnotes: Jennings Frederick claimed an alien contact in Fairmont, WV, in July 1968: a “vegetable man” who hypnotized him and took his blood. The Frank Gorshin movie was Invasion of the Saucer Men, from 1957. Jerome Eden was a ufologist and Reichian. James Moseley was one of John’s favorite targets: Coral Lorenzen was the head of APRO (Aerial Phenomena Research Organization), and may indeed have fallen out with Moseley; Joe Pyne was a TV host who specialized in ridiculing his guests, one of whom was Moseley. J. Allen Hynek was a prominent ufologist, known particularly for his role in Project Blue Book. Stendek, or Stendec, was a popular word among UFO buffs: it was the last word sent by the airliner Gilroy Star Dust before it crashed in the Andes in 1947.

As John was trying to figure out what Jaye Paro was up to, he was contending with hoaxes from his fellow researchers. He noted this strange phone call from Gray Barker, or at least someone who sounded like him. Frank Edwards had died June 23. A contactee had told Barker that a famous ufologist would die soon, and much was made of this at the UFO convention John and Gray attended that weekend.

The following letter appeared in Gray Barker’s Newsletter #5, March 1976.  John is rather rough on Jacques Vallee, but has many interesting things to say about the state of ufology.  I’ve included the preceding letter, since Ray Palmer’s thoughts on Fred Crisman may interest many of you.  I haven’t seen Gene Duplantier’s portrait of John; but if I find it, I’ll add it here.

John Keel and Gray Barker had a long and complicated friendship. As most Mothman aficionados know, Barker also investigated the disturbing events in Point Pleasant in the ’60s, and wrote his own book about them, The Silver Bridge (1970). He took a different approach than Keel, turning the material more toward fiction than reportage.

He did describe his first meeting with Keel, however; and since the book is now scarce, I’ll post it here.  It’s from Chapter 8, “The Man with the Beard.”

1967 was a particularly strange year for John. He had realized that he was increasingly unhappy writing for television, and had turned away from the field. By late 1967, he had become a full-time ufologist and fortean, and was fielding a daily barrage of bizarre reports from witnesses and from other researchers, and puzzling over strange letters and phone calls.

Many other researchers were too; and the field had become a tangled mess of rumors, disinformation, hoaxes, tests, accusations, and suspicions. It seems as if UFOS were often forgotten in the confusion. Gray Barker was in the middle of it all, and known to stir things up for the fun of it. I suspect that was the case here: he sent this letter to John, addressed to fellow researcher Jim Moseley; the references to “the old man,” the numbers, and the odd signature seem designed to promote paranoia. John suspected it was a prank, but also considered the possibility that it was a hoax by someone else to test his response, sow dissension, or track channels of communication; and he and his contacts exchanged long letters about these possibilities. As I said, it was a strange year.

ADDENDUM (12/12/12): I’ve posted a better scan of the letter. And I’m adding John’s notes on the letter.

The next group of definitions takes us from “materialize” to “Menzelform.” One less familiar term here is “Men in Gray,” entities that John associates with the Romani. According to Gray Barker (in They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers), the word “Menzelform” was coined by Richard Hughes, publisher of the Flying Saucer News in the UK. The man credited with the term “Men In Black” should be Albert Bender, not Binder; maybe John’s typo was inspired by his friend Otto Binder.

Gray Barker also sent John his correspondence with several institutions concerning Morris K. Jessup’s earlier career. Here are one of his letters of inquiry and responses from the University of Michigan, the Carnegie Institute, and the Department of Agriculture. Barker is now perhaps better known for his pranks than his research, but he did both. Jessup too was complicated, and, judging by these letters, apparently inflated his resumé.

Below are the four letters that Gray Barker enclosed in his letter to John (see the last post). He wrote the coroner of Dade County, Florida, to find out why no autopsy was performed on the ufologist Morris K. Jessup. The coroner, Dr. Joseph H. Davis, wrote back with the explanation (Jessup had donated his body to medical research), and asked for more information about Jessup and the possible reasons for his suicide. He also asked about the use of drugs in UFO circles. As Barker said in his letter, his own replies had been lost.

The next item in the “Jessup-Allende” file is a letter from Gray Barker, 9/30/75. He thanks John for plugging his edition of The Varo Edition in Saga. This was a reprint of a book published by the Varo Manufacturing Corporation in Texas, containing Morris K. Jessup’s book The Case for the UFO, with all of the annotations by Carlos Allende (Carl Allen) in red. “Giant Crock” is, of course, Giant Rock in the Mojave Desert in California, site of a regular UFO convention featuring some of the more colorful personalities in ufology; Barker was apparently amused by it. The title of the Blums’ movie is actually Mysteries from Beyond Earth; Barker also managed a movie theater in Clarksburg. Notable here too are mentions of two Keelian characters, “John Keel’s brother” and “John Keeler.” “Dr. D” and his ravings about hallucinogens are unknown to me. Maybe someone out there can clarify!

I now turn to a file that John called “Jessup-Allende.” It contains a number of documents about the so-called “Philadelphia Experiment.” I assume anyone who reads this site is familiar with the subject, but if not, the Wikipedia article provides the basic background. John’s file contains correspondence with Gray Barker about Morris K. Jessup and the “Varo Edition,” Barker’s own correspondence with several institutions about Jessup, and John’s correspondence with Carl M. Allen (aka Carlos Allende). (I posted a page of it here several years ago, but there’s much more.)

This letter to Gray Barker (March 20, 1968) also touches on reports of Men In Black and on Barker’s upcoming book on Mothman. The book, The Silver Bridge, became more novel than report; at any rate, here John offers to help Barker with it.