JOHN KEEL NOT AN AUTHORITY ON ANYTHING

door-to-door

Readers of The Mothman Prophecies may remember Jaye P. Paro, a radio personality at the Long Island station WBAB.  There is much on her in Chapter 15; she met the curious “Princess Moon Owl,” and had an “unnerving experience” with a man in a black Cadillac.

Ms. Paro also appears in Strange Creatures, in Chapter 10.  John describes some of the folklore and creature sightings on Mount Misery, in Long Island; and mentions that she and a couple of her friends saw “something that resembled a human, disfigured face, long wild black hair, and dressed in a long black garment.”  John adds that they took a picture of this creepy character.  A Googling tells me that some people out there are curious about this photo, so I’ll post it here.  It’s none too impressive; it looks, as John says, like “a dark blob.”  But here it is; you can see for yourself.

It was published in the July 1969 issue of Beyond.  The same magazine published a (clearer) photo of Ms. Paro; I’ve posted that above, so you can put a face to the name.

Earlier, I posted Jaye Paro’s sketch of “Agar,” the librarian (and companion of Mr. Apol) mentioned in Chapter 15 of The Mothman Prophecies.  In the comments, S. L. Jones pointed out that John called her “Lia” in the book, and wanted to know about the contradiction.

On looking through John’s notes, I see that Lia was another of Paro’s purported contacts.  Agar was described as olive-skinned, with black hair and eyes; Lia as blond and pregnant.  Here’s a description of their meeting, from John’s notes (this was in 1967):

I don’t know why John conflated Agar and Lia; writing several years later, he probably simply didn’t remember which was which.  There is, after all, some confusion over names in all of this.  The experiences ascribed to “Jane” in the book were actually those of Paro; I suppose John put a different name to some of her more unusual experiences to avoid her unwanted publicity.  She was, after all, a “silent contactee” in a public job.  Paro herself was really named Joanne Perranno; “Jaye P. Paro” was her professional name as a radio personality on WBAB, in Babylon, NY.  To complicate matters further, her contacts often called her “Tim’na.”

Paro claimed contact with a number of aliens and/or androids.  Agar was also known as Aggarr or Aggrr, and first identified herself as Afalyes of Trek.  Apol spelled his name in different ways, including Appell.  There were, at one time, two Agars, each claiming the other was an impostor.  And there were others, including one called Rubin, whom John found particularly irritating.

John never saw or talked with any of these beings himself: all interaction was through Paro.  Sometimes she passed along letters from them; sometimes she channeled them, both through voice and writing.  Sometimes John talked to them over the phone, but always through Paro, who relayed their answers.  I doubt that they had any independent existence outside Paro’s psyche.  John suspected so too, but was also baffled by some particulars — in those phone conversations, for example, he often heard a muffled voice in the background.  But he was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of high strangeness he was receiving that year, and, like a good reporter, just kept investigating.

John resumes his daily entries, with more reports from Jaye Paro and Helen Oglemyer. Both report being taken to a big house, which Jaye later identifies as a church; both say they came down with the mumps, or something like it. In addition, Jaye makes some notes she can’t understand the next day.

I don’t know who Bill Donovan was, but a search reveals he was a member of NICAP. There’s more on the “Gordon Evans affair” here.

At the end of August (we’re still in 1967), Jaye Paro tells John to look for a book in the Lucis Trust library. He does so, and finds passages underlined in red pencil. Apol’s letters were written in red pencil. Did Jaye mark up the book? Did someone else, and then tell her to tell John? I suspect the former, but I guess we can’t know.

The Lucis Trust was founded in 1922 by Alice Bailey and her husband Foster Bailey, to publish her books, which are apparently influenced by H. P. Blavatsky (I’ve read some Blavatsky, but no Bailey).

And we have more stories from Jaye: this time, an attempt to gas her, and a frozen phone.

We return to the file… On July 31, John wrote another letter to the supposed aliens, asking them to make their presence known, and including a questionnaire. I haven’t posted the letter here, since it’s long and similar to John’s earlier ones. (Apol later answered the questionnaire; that’s coming up in the file.)

So, here’s the record for August 1-3. Jaye Paro and another contactee, Louise, have a lot to report, including fires, a black Cadillac, orders to buy sunglasses and salt, an armed assailant, and more. John is particularly perplexed by the sound of crying baby, which occurs in other UFO cases, and inspires many Crybaby Bridges throughout the US. Rubin has now replaced Apol, but his bumbling antics soon get him sent back “home.” As John notes, “It was just another average day in the life of Jaye P. and J.K.”

A footnote: Ivan Sanderson didn’t die “soon,” but in 1973.

We’re at the end of July 1967, and John continues to keep detailed notes on the daily strangeness. Or, at least, what Jaye Paro reports as daily strangeness. Apol’s replacement, Rubin, finally appears, and shows a passion for gin rummy; John interviews him (indirectly, as always). Jaye witnesses an alien birth, and John suggests some passwords for her contacts, to prevent bogus messages from the Fourth Group. John particularly noted the salt under the baby’s tongue, in the Catholic/alien baptism, because Jaye had reported that aliens ate large amounts of salt.

A couple of footnotes: Ivan was Ivan Sanderson, writer of many books on animals, forteana, and ufology; Charles Bowen was the editor of the British Flying Saucer Review.