JOHN KEEL NOT AN AUTHORITY ON ANYTHING

Bormujos John and the Lorenzens are writing each other almost daily at this point. Coral Lorenzen’s letter from May 23, 1966, goes further into her idea that aliens were planning to put sleeping drugs in our water supply. She also comments on the wave of UFO books, and on a recent episode of the TV show “The Open Mind.” That was probably “Are Flying Saucers Only Science Fiction?”, which aired on February 27 of that year, with Donald Menzel, Frank Salisbury, John Fuller, Leo Sprinkle, and J. Allen Hynek, moderated by Eric Goldman.

John replies to Coral’s last letter. He plans to interview “the Milne woman”; does anyone know who that might be? He confesses that he finds himself “acting more and more paranoiac,” and says that Coral Lorenzen’s theory (that aliens plan to put drugs in our water supply) is not as bad as some of the material he’s collected. Jeane Dixon may be less familiar now; she was a popular astrologer and prophet at the time. Mort Young, as mentioned earlier, was a reporter for the New York Journal-American, and author of the book UFO: Top Secret.

We continue with John’s “Official Correspondence” file for 1966. Coral Lorenzen writes a long, rather chatty letter about Jim Moseley and Major Keyhoe, her speculations on aliens putting drugs in our water supply, and the Villas Boas case. Both she and John seem to feel that “the reconnaissance is drawing to a close,” and that a more serious invasion may be imminent.

After a phone conversation with the Lorenzens, John admits himself “badly shaken up.” As far as I can tell, they talked about the many sightings of UFOs near reservoirs, and both were convinced the aliens were hostile. John thought they hoped to change the earth’s atmosphere; the Lorenzens thought they planned to poison the water supply. Incidentally, rumors about LSD being dropped into reservoirs were common that year.

John also dismisses John Fuller’s Incident at Exeter as “surface stuff,” but thinks Mort Young is on the right track. He speculates on the failure of the Agena rocket on May 17, and, in a footnote, suggests that the aliens took Villas Boas’s cigarette lighter because they breathe inflammable gas.

Coral Lorenzen writes John a long letter, focusing on two famous cases. First she defends Villas-Boas’s account of his sexual experience with an alien, although she doesn’t really answer John’s questions about the different versions of it. Then she describes what later became known as the Cisco Grove Encounter, in which a hunter named Donald Shrum was besieged by a UFO on September 4, 1964. The “IGY photos” mentioned in the PPS were taken by Almirs Barauna in Trindade, Brazil, in January, 1958, during the International Geophysical Year.

June Larson, an industrious UFO researcher, writes to John to fix a price for the material she’s sending him. She’s optimistic about the state of ufology, and hopes that John, Mort Young, and Major Keyhoe can encourage “serious research.”

John writes Jim and Coral Lorenzen, acknowledging a packet of photos they sent on the 12th. He’s intrigued by the Villas Boas story, but notes discrepancies between the report in Flying Saucer Review and the original interview with João Martins and APRO member Dr. Olavo Fontes. He also comments on Ms. Lorenzen’s article “The Reason?” in the November 1963 APRO Bulletin, which speculated that the military wanted to keep its knowledge of UFOs secret from the aliens, not from the public. (You can read the article here.)

ADDENDUM: By mistake, I originally identified Ms. Larson’s letter as one from Ms. Lorenzen. They were both sending John material for his proposed Playboy article at the time. My apologies!

We continue with a brief exchange of letters between John and Coral Lorenzen, concerned mostly with photos and the problems of documenting sources. Noteworthy here is John’s first response to the account of Antônio Villas Boas (whom he calls Bolas, for some reason). Villas Boas was a Brazilian farmer who reported a sexual encounter with an alien; John and Coral discuss the case in more detail in later letters. Also to be noted is John’s mention of “Fuller’s second book.” That would be John Fuller’s book on Betty and Barney Hill, The Interrupted Journey, which would be summarized in Look, October 4 and 18, 1966, and published later that year.

John writes to Mort Young, a reporter for the now defunct New York Journal-American, whose book UFO: Top Secret was to come out the next year. John hopes the “triumvirate” of the two of them and John Fuller “can succeed in breaking this case wide open.” The Mrs. Larson he mentions is June Larson, who sent him many UFO clippings.

I started this blog ten years ago; the first post was on September 6, 2009, a few months after John died. As a postscript, here’s a note he sent me in 1991, not long after we met, after seeing me perform a set at Caroline’s Comedy Club in NYC. Keep reading his books, Keel fans!

In this next exchange with Coral Lorenzen, John acknowledges receipt of her packages, and worries that his mail is being opened. He mentions upcoming UFO books by John Fuller and Mort Young (The Interrupted Journey and UFO: Top Secret), and says he hopes they can “make UFOs as popular as the Beatles.” He discusses some new photos, and dismisses the ones that James McDivitt took on Gemini 4.

Lorenzen replies by advising John not to be paranoid about his mail. She reports that she and Jim watched “the CBS Schmear last night and were laughing ourselves sick afterwards.” That must have been UFO: Friend, Foe, or Fantasy?, narrated by Walter Cronkite, which aired on May 10. She speculates about the aliens’ intentions, and recommends that UFO reporting concentrate on “the water-electricity reconnaissance,” also cautioning that “one sighting does not constitute evidence.”

John continues his correspondence with Jim and Coral Lorenzen; Carol seems to be the one writing the letters. John stresses the need for sources, asks for a photo of the Lorenzens, an explanatory brochure, and a UFO witness form. He plans to list all the sightings for one date, and to stress APRO, NICAP, and The Flying Saucer Review, and to ignore Ray Palmer (who published Flying Saucers) and Jim Moseley (of Saucer News). The “Bolas story” refers to Antônio Villas Boas, who reported a sexual encounter with an alien. I’m puzzled by John’s use of “the Geniac system.” The only Geniac I could find was a computer toy from the ’50s. Does anyone know of a “manual system” by that name?

Coral Lorenzen replies, promising to send material on Villas Boas, and to take a picture of herself and Jim. She defends not citing sources in the bulletins, mentions a report from Peter Norris on a flap in Australia, and recommends the “IGY” photos: UFO photos taken by Almirs Barauna in Trindade, Brazil, in January, 1958, during the International Geophysical Year. She also adds, rather ominously, “it is in the interest of the people of this world to begin to accept the reality of these things as soon as possible. I doubt there is much time left.”