JOHN KEEL NOT AN AUTHORITY ON ANYTHING

Bormujos I had posted all the letters in John’s file on Charles Bowen, but I just found several more in another file of his 1966 correspondence. So, I’ll move on to those; they fill in the gaps. The first is John’s initial letter to Flying Saucer Review, introducing himself, buying a subscription, and inquiring about the Monguzzi pictures. Giampero Monguzzi had taken several photos of a saucer and its pilot in 1952; he later confessed to a hoax, and posed with the models he’d used. John’s Playboy article and the book with Ivan Sanderson were eventually abandoned; he reworked the material into Operation Trojan Horse. Bowen directs John to Lou Zinsstag, an Adamski enthusiast who was also Carl Jung’s niece. Bowen is politely cautious about the Monguzzi photos.

The last letter in this file is one from Bowen, written on January 30, 1967. I don’t know why it’s the last; maybe they kept in touch by phone after that; maybe John kept more letters in another file. Bowen had apparently called John out of the blue, to “keep up to date.” It was the first time they’d spoken; he comments on their respective accents. Most of the letter is taken up with his thoughts on Colonel Freeman. George P. Freeman, of Project Blue Book, had made a surprising statement about UFO witnesses being interviewed by people impersonating USAF officers, which is now, I believe, often cited in books on the Men In Black. He also mentions a report about “supermarkets going up in smoke in Florida,” and that he gave John’s address to Jerome Clark.

John writes to Charles Bowen (editor of the British magazine Flying Saucer Review), responding to a phone call. Apparently, Bowen had asked him to write an article on the 1966 UFO flap, and John is rather apologetic about the result. He also mentions his attempt to decipher the papers produced by UFO contactee John Reeves, which contain symbols that remind him of others reported by Antônio Vilas Boas, George Adamski, and Lonnie Zamora (in Socorro, NM). He did keep a file on his research, and published a booklet called The Reeves Papers: A Modern Rosetta Stone? There doesn’t seem to be much mention of it online, so I’ll have to dig it out… He also mentions a story about “a vast complex of underground chambers at the Cape Kennedy launching site.”

Bowen’s next letter, from January 19, 1967, thanks John for a package of ufological material, especially a copy of Saga in which John had apparently plugged the Flying Saucer Review.

He accepts an article of John’s, but asks for more references, and discusses his desire to avoid duplicating material that had appeared in other UFO publications, since many readers read several of them. He doesn’t mention payment; there may have been none. In addition, he notes that FSR‘s circulation in North America had topped a thousand, and suggests that some of the stigma of ufology was waning, particularly for the work of Gordon Creighton, Jacques Vallee, Aimé Michel, Coral Lorenzen, John, and himself. The “Waveney” mentioned in passing is Ian Waveney Girvan, the founder of FSR.

Charles Bowen wrote his next air letter to John on January 11, 1967. He responds to a “stunner” of a UFO sighting John sent him, dismissing the idea that it was a “secret US project.” He also passes on a report from a correspondent, about a newspaper ad for the OS (I assume that’s the Ordnance Survey, the government mapping agency), using the Socorro symbol. The symbol, supposedly spotted on a UFO in Socorro, NM in 1964, had, understandably, intrigued ufologists. Bowen also invites John to contribute to the Flying Saucer Review.

ADDENDUM: As Ozinor notes in the comments, that’s probably “US,” not “OS.”

Happy New Year! We continue with John’s correspondence with Charles Bowen, editor of Flying Saucer Review. Bowen’s next letter was written the day after the last one. He reports meeting with his lawyer to discuss legal action against the Theoharouses, a couple in the US selling pirated copies of Bowen’s book The Humanoids. It’s not clear from the letter if they planned to reprint it, or simply order copies and sell them at a profit. In any case, John alerted Bowen, who was understandably grateful. One provocative detail: Bowen says “what they proposed to do was far worse than anything even Frank Edwards has done.” Apparently Edwards had a bad reputation among some of his colleagues!

John’s correspondence with Charles Bowen grows less formal, as Bowen switches to handwriting and gives John his home address. He was understandably grateful; John alerted him to a certain Mr. and Mrs. Theoharous, who planned to pirate Bowen’s book The Humanoids, then set to appear in a special issue of Flying Saucer Review. Piracy was a continuing problem in UFO publishing: John’s own book Operation Trojan Horse was later pirated by Manor Books under the title Why UFOs.

Coral Lorenzen was the founder of the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO). Jim Capello was the Advertising Director for Science and Mechanics. I don’t know who “the Harris spiv” is, but Bowen is obviously not a fan.

Bowen replies to a letter from John, not saved in this file. He thanks John for the copy of Look; I assume it was the October 4 issue, which featured an excerpt from John Fuller’s book The Interrupted Journey, about Betty and Barney Hill’s abduction story. The tall hairy creature is probably this one. The Humanoids was Bowen’s book on UFO inhabitants, first published as a special issue of Flying Saucer Review. And Bowen reveals quite a busy lecturing schedule.

Charles Bowen replies to John in a letter from September 16, 1966. As mentioned before, Playboy eventually refused John’s article, which he reworked into his book Operation Trojan Horse. I don’t know which articles in True Bowen is referring to here. Gordon is Gordon Creighton, a regular contributor to Flying Saucer Review. Trench is Brinsley Le Poer Trench, 8th Earl of Clancarty and an ardent ufologist; the book may be The Flying Saucer Story, which was published that year. John Watkins refers to Watkins Books, London’s oldest esoteric bookstore, then being managed by Geoffrey Watkins, the son of the founder. Charles Bowen’s study of UFO inhabitants, The Humanoids, was published as a special issue of Flying Saucer Review, and then reprinted as a book. John’s article, “New Landing and Creature Reports. Sightings in Erie, Pennsylvania,” was indeed published in the Nov.-Dec. issue.

John writes Charles Bowen (editor of the Flying Saucer Review in the UK) about his recent investigations and upcoming publications. Unfortunately, his “very long” article was rejected by Playboy; most of the material went into his book Operation Trojan Horse. True also didn’t publish his article in that December issue; I don’t know if they used it later. The sighting by William Rutledge and Donald Peck is mentioned in the first chapter of Operation Trojan Horse.