Lynn Catoe writes back with a letter taking John to task for some of his methodology and confirmation bias, most pointedly in a postscript quoting occult historian Maurice Bessy. She also fills him in on her background and interests, mentions a visit with Isabel Davis, of the UFO group Civilian Saucer Intelligence, and deplores the infighting among UFO buffs.
Ivan and Alma are Ivan and Alma Sanderson; Sue Brown was Sanderson’s personal assistant at the time; Stewart Nixon was a member of NICAP.
John Keel would have been 90 today. Here he is as a boy, proudly holding his Charlie McCarthy doll. According to the inscription on the back, the photo was taken on Cedar St. in Hornell, NY, and the two girls are Landy and Carolyn. I don’t know who they are.
Stay safe during the pandemic! Stay at home and read some Keel books!
Lynn Catoe’s letter must have provoked John, because he answered with a remarkable letter. He writes about his abandoned UFO book with Ivan Sanderson, hoax letters from “The International Bankers,” experiences with his network of “silent contactees,” and interactions with his fellow researchers Gray Barker, Jim Moseley, and Gordon Evans. He also goes into more detail about his research and objectives.
The Straith letter was a letter written to contactee George Adamski by Barker and Moseley, on stolen stationery from the Department of State. The supposed writer, “R. E. Straith,” said he believed Adamski’s claims, but had to keep his support secret. Joseph Henslik was a supposed contactee whom John believed had been coached by Barker and Moseley.
Lynn Catoe responds to John’s letter with some bewilderment, suggesting that he’s a bit more “round the bend” than he thinks. She also wants to know exactly what “specialized research” he’s doing, and what his methods are. And she also suggests that the mysterious phone calls he’s received may have been pranks.
John writes to Lynn Catoe, shortly after they began conferring about her proposed UFO bibliography. Among the interesting bits in this letter are Gordon Evans’s withdrawal from ufology, reports of a John Keel impersonator, a black Cadillac cruising Ivan and Alma Sanderson’s farm, warnings of “odd incidents” Ms. Catoe might experience, and the news that John is now “trying to lead away from the extra-terrestrial thesis and point in new directions.” The “episode with the man in the pickup truck” happened to Ms. Catoe while she was driving to visit the Sandersons in October. A man stopped her and insisted on crawling under her car; when she reached the farm she discovered three lumps of putty on the bottom of her gas tank. John tells the story in more detail in Chapter 17 of The Mothman Prophecies.
ADDENDUM: In the comments, Clarence Carlson expressed curiosity about Gordon Evans. Here’s a link to a transcript of Jim Moseley’s UFO convention in June 1967, which includes a talk by Evans. There’s also a talk by John, and contributions by Gray Barker, Long John Nebel, Ivan Sanderson, and other people who show up in these letters.
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