JOHN KEEL NOT AN AUTHORITY ON ANYTHING

Here’s the next day of The Athens Messenger‘s coverage of the Silver Bridge disaster. Again, I apologize for the loss of a line of type at the fold. These old papers aren’t easy to scan.

The Silver Bridge in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, collapsed on Dec. 15, 1967. As John’s readers know, the tragedy played an important part in The Mothman Prophecies. He not only visited Point Pleasant and corresponded with one of the local journalists, Mary Hyre, but collected much of the local coverage, especially from The Athens Messenger.

I’ll post some of it here, since it’s hard to find otherwise. The earliest paper he kept was from December 17. The papers are too large for my scanner, so I’m afraid you’ll miss a few lines of antique newsprint.

And a personal note: I’ve neglected this site for the last couple of months. I’m back to a weekly schedule now. Keep reading!

The last items in the “Hartshorne, Oklahoma” folder are the two letters Gordon Lore mentions in his NICAP report and a clipping about the sightings from the Oklahoma Journal. So, there you have it–how John conducted one of his early investigations.

Altaclair Morgan sends one last letter to John, reporting on more sightings. This is the last letter in the folder; I don’t know if John ever managed to travel to Hartshorne. This is not the last item, though. Next week I’ll post some of Gordon Lore’s correspondence about the Hartshorne sightings.

Altaclair Morgan responds to John’s letter (see last post). She reports recent sightings with, as he’d requested, details about their pattern of appearances. Oddly (to me), she writes that they showed up at the same time very evening for weeks, but doesn’t give the time. Nor does she give any details about the “GLOB” she saw fall from one of the objects; it’s not mentioned in Gordon Lore’s NICAP report.

John responds to Altaclair Morgan’s letter (see last post). He fills her in on other current flaps and doubts that the UFOs seen in Hartshorne are mapping the area. He asks her to record the sightings to determine if they “follow some kind of cycle.”

He also objects to a recent CBS special. That was UFO: Friend, Foe, or Fantasy, which aired on May 10, 1966. The whole program can be seen on YouTube, here.

Altaclair Morgan answers John’s letter (see last post) about UFO sightings in Hartshorne, Oklahoma. She describes the objects’ behavior (particularly in response to aircraft) and the local news coverage. John apparently questions her suggestion that the UFOs are mapping the area.

John writes a letter of inquiry to the principal witness mentioned in the NICAP report (see last post), Altaclair Morgan (whose name was misspelled in the report). Ms. Morgan was a journalist and radio personality; note the postscript. These are the questions he asked witnesses at this early point in his career; he was apparently particularly interested in metal spheres and boils.

There were several UFO sightings in Hartshorne, Oklahoma in 1966, and John investigated them for his proposed article for Playboy. His folder on the sightings contains a report from NICAP (National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena), correspondence between Gordon Lore of NICAP and an official in Oklahoma and a geologist in North Dakota, and John’s correspondence with one of the witnesses. In 1966, John was just starting his investigation of UFOs.

First, here’s that NICAP report, which I assume was written by Gordon Lore, since John clipped Lore’s correspondence to it. I’m afraid the 59-year-old photocopy has faded; I did my best to darken it.

John Keel died sixteen years ago, on July 3, 2009. Rest in peace, John. And you Keel fans: keep on reading his books!