JOHN KEEL NOT AN AUTHORITY ON ANYTHING

John wrote the following position statement for http://e17arttrail.co.uk/?passed_index=188 The Encyclopedia of UFOs, edited by Ronald D. Story and J. Richard Greenwell (Doubleday, 1980).  It’s a concise summation of his conclusions at the time.

Carl Allen — or, as he preferred to call himself, Carlos Allende — caused a great deal of confusion in the ufological community in the ’60s.

If you’re unfamiliar with him, I can direct you to Robert A. Goerman’s dossier. But, in brief, Allen wrote some letters to the UFO writer Morris K. Jessup, which, disseminated and elaborated, became the story of the “Philadelphia Experiment.” He also annotated a copy of Jessup’s book, The Case for the UFO, and sent it to Admiral Furth, Chief of the Office of Naval Research in Washington, D.C. The Navy transcribed it, and published it in a small edition with Allen’s commentary in red: thereby puzzling and exciting saucer buffs everywhere. The “Varo Edition” (so called after the printer) became a legend, more talked about than read, until Gray Barker published a facsimile in 1973.

Jessup eventually killed himself; and speculation about his suicide, the military, and Allende generated many conspiracy theories.

According to John, the original Allende-enhanced paperback ended up with Ivan Sanderson; and John recalled sitting up one night to study it.

Allen also wrote John a few times. He favored long, abusive, and incoherent tirades (“dammit you make me darn good and mad with your silly-damm supercilliously snobbish all-knowing superiority”). Here’s the final page of one:

Allen was, at last, no more than a troubled drifter. Goerman’s interview with his father (Fate, 10/81) is a sad one. But Carlos caused quite a bit of excitement in his day.

John Keel and Gray Barker had a long and complicated friendship. As most Mothman aficionados know, Barker also investigated the disturbing events in Point Pleasant in the ’60s, and wrote his own book about them, The Silver Bridge (1970). He took a different approach than Keel, turning the material more toward fiction than reportage.

He did describe his first meeting with Keel, however; and since the book is now scarce, I’ll post it here.  It’s from Chapter 8, “The Man with the Beard.”

John shot some 16mm home movies when he visited Egypt in 1954, gathering material for his first book, Jadoo; and you can now watch it here.  The four minute film shows John and Lite Beilenberg (to whom the book is dedicated) visiting the pyramids, as well as some entertaining footage of snake hunters.  John later edited this into an 8mm reel that he used to show at Fortean events.  Thanks to Anthony Matt for the digital transfer; and to Angela Alverson for help with the upload.