JOHN KEEL NOT AN AUTHORITY ON ANYTHING

can you order disulfiram online The folder containing the winged cat article that I posted two weeks ago includes some other documents. Jim Lorenzen of APRO sent John some clippings about winged cats (now unfortunately too faded to post here) and the relevant part of a letter from Prior Maximilian Hemsley Edwards. Edwards was an interesting character–he was a professor of linguistics at the University of Victoria, where he specialized in Rumanian, and he also contributed to the Flying Saucer Review. John promptly wrote him a letter. More next week!

John was born March 25, 1930. Happy Birthday, John! He’s seen here with his long-time partner Arlene Stadd, from a calendar that she made for him in 1994.

Keep reading those Keel books!

John wrote this amusing account of a winged cat in January, 1968. I don’t know if it was published in this form, but John incorporated it into Chapter Four, “Flying Felines,” of Strange Creatures From Time and Space, later reissued as The Complete Guide to Mysterious Beings.

We continue with the local coverage of the Silver Bridge disaster. The search continues for those lost in the collapse; Mary Hyre devotes her column to the recovery and to a memorial service for two of the victims.

John wrote this letter to Col. George P. Freeman, a spokesman for Project Blue Book, on Jan. 30, 1967. I don’t know what Col. Freeman thought of it, but I think it likely that John’s warning about “the actual physical fate of the planet itself” was not taken seriously.

I assume the “rather hysterical newspaper piece” John mentions is this one.

The next day’s coverage of the Silver Bridge disaster includes a report on the continuing search for bodies and Mary Hyre’s account of the funeral of Paul and Lillian Wedge, who died in the collapse. There’s also a UFO report from Shade, Ohio, 33.6 miles from Point Pleasant.

As a writer specializing in strangeness, John naturally received many strange letters. Here, for example, is a letter sent to Saga in October, 1968, from someone claiming to represent a group called VOK, “which is an acronym.” The subject of UFOs was then, as always, filled with hoaxes, pranks, and misinformation. I don’t know who was behind VOK, or if the story went further than this letter.

The Athens Messenger continues its coverage of the Silver Bridge disaster, with updates on recovery operations and attempts to determine the cause of the collapse. Mary Hyre’s column is, sadly, mostly devoted to listing the dead. Once again, I apologize for the loss of a line of text in scanning these fragile newspapers.

And here’s the last part of John’s proposal for an unrealized book called Stendek. I’m obliged to be a spoilsport and point out that the story of Rudolph Fentz came not from the NYPD, but from the short story “I’m Scared,” by Jack Finney, published in Collier’s, September 15, 1951.

It’s an intriguing proposal. We can only wonder what the finished book would have been like.

Here’s the second part of John’s proposal for an unrealized book to be called Stendek.