JOHN KEEL NOT AN AUTHORITY ON ANYTHING

In 1967, Tom Monteleone was a student at the University of Maryland. While listening to a radio interview with Woodrow Derenberger, the contactee familiar to readers of The Mothman Prophecies, he called in to say that he too had met aliens and had visited the planet Lanulos. John believed his story, which he summarized in Operation Trojan Horse:

“In December, 1967, Tom Monteleone, a young student, a psychology major in Adelphi, Maryland, allegedly had a contact with a grounded UFO and conversed with a man in ‘shiny coveralls’ who identified himself as ‘Vadig.’ A few weeks later this same Vadig appeared in a Washington restaurant, where the student was working as a waiter. This time he was dressed in conventional clothing and appeared to be a normal human being except for his bulging ‘thyroid eyes.’ Altogether, the student met Vadig four times, and each time he ended the conversation with the phrase ‘I’ll see you in time.'”

John wrote more about Monteleone in Chapter 14 of The Mothman Prophecies: “Naturally, I suspected the whole thing was some kind of put-on. Either Tom and Woody were in cahoots, or Tom, who was a psychology major, was working on a paper about the gullible UFO buffs, I thought. […] I finally had to conclude Tom was on the level.”

Naturally, John’s first impression was correct. Monteleone had in fact made up the story. He later regretted the incident, and went on to a successful career as a writer, particularly of science fiction and horror. Unfortunately, John never admitted that he had been fooled, and that he had let credulity and confirmation bias affect his judgment.

Here are John’s notes from his meeting with Monteleone, as well a few lines of unidentified characters and a drawing of a black ball and tower. I don’t know if the last two pages are related to Monteleone’s story or just in the same notebook.