JOHN KEEL NOT AN AUTHORITY ON ANYTHING

http://schottremovals.co.uk/author/owen/page/8/ A longer, more chatty letter from Mary Hyre this time.  She expresses interest in John’s “adventures on Long Island”; in fact, he did enter into correspondence with “one of them,” Mr. Apol.  or, at least, someone claiming to be Mr. Apol.  There is also news of Linda and Roger Scarberry’s marriage; a Mrs. Bowen, who wants to tell her experiences to John; a Mrs. Bennett, who may have missing time episodes related to Mothman (this, I assume, is Marcella Bennett); and an upcoming trip to New York.  She has been unable to find out more about the contactee she mentioned in her last letter.

The next letter from Mary Hyre is from May 24, 1967.  She sent John some clippings (which he must have filed somewhere else, but which apparently contained new Mothman sightings), spotted a UFO over her house, and sent a report of a local contactee, who apparently wasn’t Woodrow Derenberger.

From the 6th issue of Shavertron (Winter 1980) comes this article:  John was attending a UFO conference in NYC, and was questioned about Richard Shaver by Mike Cohen.  Obviously, he was suffering at the time from his diabetes, which had not yet been diagnosed.

It’s taken from Shavertron: The Mimeograph Years, a collection of the Shaver zine that Richard Toronto published for many years.  I suspect many Keel fans will enjoy it.  There’s not much JAK, but there’s a full menu of ’80s forteana: the Shaver Mystery, mutes, UFOs, Alternative 3, rock books, the hollow earth, and more, all in the scrappy fanzine format that served us so well before the internet.  You can find it at over here.

John died five years ago today. After he  died, I wrote a piece on his final years for the Fortean Times. Some readers, especially American, may not have seen it, so I’ll post it here. RIP, John!

(more…)