JOHN KEEL NOT AN AUTHORITY ON ANYTHING

Lumphăt 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.