Tom Benson, 3rd UFO Researcher To Die In A Week

Tom Benson, UFO researcher, UFO contactee, former Mutual UFO Network New Jersey State Director, and a former investigator for the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies, has died at the age of 77.

Tom apparently passed away on Tuesday, December 2, 2014, from pneumonia following complications from colon surgery in September.

(Benson is pictured above, on the left, with ufologists Jim Moseley, Antonio Huneeus and David Houchin.)

Benson, during the 1980s, was the editor of the zine, The Sixth Quark Journal. Above is Number 2 for 1981, which Benson self-published from his hometown of Trenton, New Jersey.

Benson worked for the State of New Jersey as a personnel management analyst, as well as a sideline selling vintage UFO books. 

Tom Benson was deeply involved with field investigations in New Jersey, and then presenting his research results at conferences, when our paths overlapped.

One presentation of Benson's has been used in various field manuals throughout ufology. It issued from his personal investigations of an alleged UFO landing case from September 1986. The insightful paper he gave at the MUFON Symposium at American University in 1987, was entitled, "Misinterpretation of Slime Molds as UFO Physical Trace Evidence."

Most people, in recent years, only heard about Benson through James Moseley's Saucer Smear Newsletter. On November 16, 2012, Moseley, 81, died in Key West, Florida (see obituary, here). Since Tom Benson was a close friend, he inherited Moseley's archives.

Tom Benson is the third UFO-related researcher/writer to have died recently.

Now Tom Benson joins the list of those who have written about ufology in the past, who have died this fall.

Wes Nations, 47, died on November 25, 2014. Read his obituary, here. 

Rocky Wood, 55, died on December 1, 2014. Read his obituary, here.

Reading of these men's deaths have revealed surprise as to where their lives took them.

Patrick Huyghe, author of Swamp Gas Times, and publisher of Anomalist Books, writes: "I remember Wes Nations and Crash Collusion; I used to exchange zines with him. I never knew about his Vagabond identity though.​ He was a cool guy. Sad to lose him at just a young age." 

Jerome Clark, author of The UFO Book, emails: "I used to know Rocky Wood many years ago but had since lost touch with him. He was a nice guy. I'm sorry that he suffered and died too soon."

Others have mentioned that they "did not know that Rocky Wood was an expert on Stephen King."

Condolences to their friends, family, and loved ones.

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The formal obituary follows:

Thomas Anthony Benson Jr Obituary
Date of Birth:
Monday, September 13th, 1937
Date of Death:
Tuesday, December 2nd, 2014
Funeral Home:
Brenna-Cellini Funeral Homes
2365 Whitehorse Mercerville Road
Hamilton, New Jersey, UNITED STATES
08619
Obituary:
Thomas Anthony Benson, 77, of Ewing Township, New Jersey, passed away surrounded by his loving family on December 2, 2014 at the University Medical Center of Princeton. Born in Manhattan, New York, he had resided in Ewing for most of his life. A U.S. Army veteran, he was educated at Trenton Boys Catholic, Mercer County Community College, and Rutgers University. He received his Masters in City and Regional Planning, graduating cum laude from Rutgers University. Thomas retired after 35 years of service as a personnel management analyst with the State of New Jersey, Department of Personnel. A good father, he was instrumental in sparking his daughter Marisa’s interests in diplomacy, and the arts and his son Alan’s interests in soccer, as well as in rocks and minerals.
Throughout his adult life, Tom had an abiding interest in Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO’s). He taught a course at the local high school on ufology. He served as State Section Director and Investigator for the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON). In the late seventies, he founded a UFO study group for the scientific study of UFO’s. Tom traveled extensively to present talks, participate, and sell books at many UFO conferences, including MIT and the American University. In the eighties, Tom published his UFO magazine the Sixth Quark Journal. Once at the National UFO Conference (NUFOC) he was awarded the honor of Ufologist of the Year. He was a member of the New York Fortean Society.
He loved folk music, especially the tunes of Pete Seeger. A social activist, Tom marched with Martin Luther King for freedom. He was an avid collector of Christmas and Halloween decorations, and was known by family, friends, and neighbors for his magical displays. As a book dealer, he enjoyed selling books online through ABE Books. Tom was a master gardener and helped begin the Ornamental Horticulture Program at Mercer County Community College.
Tom was a courageous, competent and compassionate person with high moral values, and will be deeply missed by all who knew him.
Son of the late Thomas A. and Ann (Shestko) Benson; he is survived by his wife, Melanie; his daughter, Marisa; son, Alan; sister, Susan; two sisters-in-law, Eileen and husband Jack Simzak, and Susan Miller; niece, Nancy Miller, and nephews, Andrew and Stephen Miller.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated Friday, December 12, 2014 at 10:30 am at Incarnation Church, 1545 Pennington Rd., Ewing, NJ. Cremation will be private. Calling hours will be held Thursday from 5 to 8 pm at the Parkside Brenna-Cellini Funeral Home, 1584 Parkside Ave., Ewing, NJ 08638. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Mercer Street Friends, 151 Mercer St., Trenton, NJ 08611 or Isles, Inc., 10 Wood St., Trenton, NJ 08618. Please visit Tom’s tribute page at www.brennacellinifuneralhomes.com
Brought to you by:  Brenna-Cellini Funeral Homes

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(Thanks to George P. Hansen and Patrick Huyghe for the initial news, plus T. Peter Park for the link to the formal obit.)

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The following are the links to my remembrances for the three ufology researchers/writers who died in one week (November 25 – December 2, 2014):

Tom Benson

Rocky Wood

Wes Nations

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Thank you.

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Rocky Wood, 55, Expert on Kaikoura UFOs & Stephen King, Dies

Former UFO author, Horror Writers Association president and Stephen King scholar Rocky Wood, 55, died December 1, 2014 in Melbourne, Australia, of complications from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Rocky Wood was born October 19, 1959 in Wellington, New Zealand.

Wood was a freelance writer for over 35 years. His writing career began at university, where he wrote a national newspaper column in New Zealand on extra-terrestrial life and UFO-related phenomena and published other articles about the phenomenon worldwide, in the course of which research he met such figures as Erich von Däniken and J. Allen Hynek.

Some of Wood's ufology articles include, 

1978. The UFO Phenomenon in New Zealand – A Brief Review "Erich von Daniken and UFOs in New Zealand" April.

1978. "Was a UFO Responsible for the Disappearance of an Australian Aircraft?" Wairarapa Times-Age 16 November.
1978. "Did a UFO Kidnap Australian Pilot and Plane?" The UFO Examiner December.
1979. "Sky Watch" New Zealand Truth 16 January.

1979. "Did UFO Abduct Aircraft?" Fate Magazine, March.
1979. "Final Conclusions on the Kaikoura UFO Mystery" Earth Colonisation Report  April (with Dr Jan Feike de Bock).
1979. "The Greatest UFO Film Ever Made" Fate Magazine, June.
1979. "Degenerate Humanoids and UFOs" AUFOS Newsletter, July/August.
1979. "The Kaikoura UFO Controversy" (special issue of the Earth Colonisation Report) September (with Dr Jan Feike de Bock and Dr Bruce Maccabee).
1979. "UFO Centre Will Study All Cases" New Zealand Truth 4 September.
1979. "UFO’s – Phenomenon That Won’t Go Away" Kapiti Observer/News Shopper 8 October.
1979. "UFO Blitzes Police Car and KOs Driver!" New Zealand Truth 23 October.
1979. "Leaked Files Show UFO Sighting" New Zealand Truth 13 November.

1980. "New Zealand UFO Studies Centre: Kaikoura UFO Controversy," ed. by Rocky Wood. Wellington, New Zealand: New Zealand UFO Studies Centre, 4th special issue.

1980. "Future Looks Bright for UFO Searches" New Zealand Truth 15 January.
1980. "When a UFO Can Become an IFO" New Zealand Truth 22 January.
1980. "Strange Signs in the Sky: What are They?" New Zealand Truth 19 February.
1980. "Mystery in Night-Lights" New Zealand Truth 26 February.
1980. "Lights With a Roar – The Rarest of All!" New Zealand Truth 25 March.
1980. "Mystery of the Mutilated Animals" New Zealand Truth 22 April.
1980. "What UFO Did to Police Car" New Zealand Truth 6 May.
1980. "Amazing Space: God and the Maori War" New Zealand Truth 8 July.
1980. "Kaikoura UFOs: At Last the Full Story" New Zealand Truth 2 September.
1981. "Lights At Sea Puzzle Parkers" New Zealand Truth 24 March.
1981. "Aussie Triangle Theory Suspect" New Zealand Truth 31 March.
1981. "Huge Tank Drained in UFO Visit" New Zealand Truth 14 April.
1981. "Space Probe Spots Odd Bodies" New Zealand Truth 2 June.
1981. "Debate A Major Advance in UFO Research" New Zealand Truth 9 June.
1982. "Ancient Astronauts Aren’t Shot Down" New Zealand Truth 13 April.

Wood also wrote articles on the security industry published in the US, Canada, the UK, New Zealand and South Africa.

Wood was one of the globe's foremost experts on Stephen King, writing many articles and books on the author, including The Complete Guide to the Works of Stephen King (2003), Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished (2006), The Stephen King Collector’s Guide (2006), Stephen King: The Non-Fiction (2009), and Stoker Award winner Stephen King: A Literary Companion (2011). 

Wood assisted King with research on Doctor Sleep, sequel to The Shining, with King calling Wood “my go-to guy for all things Shining….The Rock knows my work better than I do myself.”

In 2002, Wood traveled to Orono, Maine, and spent three weeks researching the Stephen King Archives at the Special Collections Unit of the Raymond H. Fogler Library at the University of Maine. Wood has undertaken five research trips to Maine in the course of his research on King's work.

Wood was a Trustee in the Horror Writers Association from 2008-10, and was elected as president for the 2010-12 term. He was re-elected for the 2012-14 term. He also wrote non-fiction graphic novels, including Stoker Award winner Witch Hunts: A Graphic History of the Burning Times (2011).

Wood was diagnosed with ALS in October 2010. He is survived by two daughters and a granddaughter.

See the January 2015 issue of Locus for the announcement of Wood's death.

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The following are the links to my three remembrances for the three ufology researchers/writers who died in one week (November 25 – December 2, 2014):

Tom Benson

Rocky Wood

Wes Nations

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Consider supporting the work of this blog with a modest or generous donation.

Every amount assists.

Thank you.

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Old Ufologist Replies To Young Ufologists

Pondering such postings as "Are You Still Alive? UFO Deaths, Revisited" and "Ufologist Stan Friedman Suffers Heart Attack," a seasoned ufologist has forwarded a response.

Encounters with Aliens by George W. Earley (1978)

Be advised this "dinosaur" of ufology is still alive and reasonably well. At 87, I may be one of the few left who read the original news story on the Arnold sighting: June 25, [1947] front page of one of the St. Louis papers. 

It was only a one column piece, maybe 6" at most long. At the time, I put it down to him having seen jets out of Boeing Field, not too many air miles from where he was. Learning more later, including UFO sightings by night by bomber crews over Korean air space during that fracas, I became more and more curious. Earlier, during a visit of our AFROTC unit to Wright-Pattterson, I was sternly admonished by the Colonel who was our tour guide, when I asked about "flying saucers," as they were still being called then. 

"Mister!" he snapped, "We do NOT talk about such things!" 

I thought, "Ok, sir . . . but we sure in hell can THINK about them." 

And so I did and still am. 

I would also note that Willy Ley ("Uncle Villy" as a few of us were privileged to call him) indicated some interest in the topic early on but later decided it was not worth his attention. He definitely does not warrant being called a "ufologist."

As for me, I was the only ufologist to interview Phil Klass AND get said interview published by FATE Magazine. Did a few other interviews/articles for them as well as numerous reviews for Fate and a number of other publications, eventually winding up as a reviewer/article writer and 'contributing editor' for the currently moribund UFO Magazine. My final article [~15000 words serialized over 4 issues] was a hard-nosed look at the Maury Island Hoax, resulting from by brief appearance on the first UFO Hunters TV show where 20 minutes of discussion with Bill Birnes was boiled down to 1 or 2 brief sentences. 

I live on one of Mount Hood's old glacier moraines with 25 acres of woods and ~5 acres of open meadow where neither Bigfoot nor Flying Saucers seem interested in visiting.

Cheers, 

George Earley, July 12, 2014.

P.S. Publish this if you want; these upstart ufologists are historically illiterate and misinformed about how well many of us are!

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Are You Still Alive? UFO Deaths, Revisited

Do ufologists die in more strange circumstances than most people?

Roger K. Leir, D.P.M., 79, passed away on March 14, 2014. Leir was a podiatric surgeon and author, but he is best known for his work investigating alleged extraterrestrial implants.

As if stepping from an episode of The X-Files, Leir and his work gained worldwide attention due to his interests in the phenomenon of supposed alien implants and his alleged removal of several such objects from the bodies of abductees. He also investigated the 1996 Varginha, Brazil case and the 2007-2009 UFO sightings in Kumburgaz, Turkey. Leir became well-known in the field from his appearances on television documentaries and radio programs, as well as a speaker at multiple international conferences and symposiums.

Leir's cause of death is uncertain. Some have said he died from complications of shingles. According to Fortean author Christopher O’Brien, Leir was in the hospital on March 14, 2014, awaiting surgery on his own foot that had been injured in a 2010 automobile accident. Leir reportedly left to use the restroom, but never came out.

Due to Leir's age, he could be called part of the "old guard." Younger ufologists have died in recent years too. People die all the time, of course. But of late, there has been increased talk of ufologists being murdered or dying mysteriously.

John Mack and Budd Hopkins, UFO Congress awards ceremony; Photo Stuart Conway, 2002.

Another strange death remains that of Harvard psychiatrist, Pulitzer Prize winner, and author of Abduction: Human Encounters with Aliens (1994), Dr. John E. Mack, who died on Monday, September 27, 2004, while in London to lecture. Mack was killed by a drunken driver heading west on Totteridge Lane. He was walking home alone, after a dinner with friends, when he was struck at 11:25 p.m. near the junction of Totteridge Lane and Longland Drive. He lost consciousness at the scene of the accident and was pronounced dead shortly thereafter. The driver was arrested at the scene, and was later convicted and jailed for the offense, though there was very little media coverage of this. There are still those who believe that his death was suspicious as it appeared to be far too "convenient."

Mac Tonnies, 34, a rising intellectual presence in Fortean thought and the "Posthuman Blues" blogger, was found dead in his apartment on October 22, 2009. His book The Cryptoterrestrials (Anomalist Books, 2010), published after his death, extended the thoughts of John Keel's ultraterrestrials. Tonnies' death, allegedly, may have been tied to one of several causes, but certainly it was one surrounded by quiet confusing details. (Please refer to Mike Clelland's statement in the comment section below for more on this.)

RRR's "Death List"

Strangely, Mac's name appeared at the end of the "death list" of people that a group of youthful ufologists placed in their infamous posting of March 22, 2008, 19 months or so, before Tonnies' passing. The so-called "RRRGroup," in their "UFO PROVOCATEUR(S)" blog entry entitled "Death(s) will clean the UFO palate," listed the names of people whom they almost seemed to be wishing would die more quickly so the "future" of the field could dawn more quickly.

They wrote:

When ufology’s old-guard passes on – Dick Hall, Stan Friedman, Kevin Randall, John Schuessler, and even the 60ish Jerry Clark to name a few – taking hangers-on and sycophants with them (and you know who they are), the UFO palate will be cleansed.

That is, the mummified concepts of ufology will be washed away, and new paradigms will be allowed to flourish.

Standing in the wings already is a group of middle-agers who, while not particularly astute about the UFO history and inclined to be cavalier with their observations and characterizations of ufology and UFOs themselves, think they are the news faces of ufology, which is a mantle they hope to change.

Those people include Paul Kimball, Nick Redfern, Greg Bishop, and Mac Tonnies.

...Once the old-guard is gone, and the mid-lifers dismissed because of their foolishness, the young crop of UFO mavens’ newer ideas will hold sway with the public and media....

Blood mixed with ink. After the above was written, Richard H. Hall died on July 17, 2009. Mac Tonnies died on October 22, 2009. Stan Friedman, Kevin Randle, John Schuessler, and Jerry Clark are still alive.

Former Socorro, New Mexico police officer and close encounter eyewitness to one of the most well-known UFO cases in history, Lonnie Zamora died on November 2, 2009, of heart failure.

C. D. B. Bryan also died in 2009, and Wendelle Stevens in 2010. The Year of 2011 saw a number of important ufologists die, including Budd Hopkins, Ion Hobana, and several others.

Well-known 1896-1897 Airship historian and Fortean archivist Lou Farish, 74, passed away on January 26, 2012. Fortean friend, ufology humorist, and writer James W. Moseley, 81, died November 16, 2012. He passed away at a Key West, Florida, hospital, several months after being diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus.

Ten days after Moseley died, on Monday, November 26, 2012, the RRRGroup posted again on this topic, in "Ufology is dying and ufologists with it."

The RRR blogger wrote:

The death of “prominent” UFO mavens this year -- with more to come by years end -- will decimate the moribund UFO topic....The aging UFO researchers are either ill or near-death, many divorced and struggling to maintain a UFO identity, but without cachet any longer or credibility.

One comment maker, Michael D Swords, first author of the UFO History Group's UFOs and Government, wrote in, leaving the following on November 28, 2012:

Hello. I woke up this morning and found that I was alive. This did not surprise me. I also found that Patrick Huyghe was putting together a UFO research panel for the Society for Scientific Exploration meeting in June, including Eddie Bullard, Mark Rodeghier, and myself. Both of them were alive and healthy when I checked.
When I returned to Kalamazoo last evening, there was my young friend, in his thirties, who is writing a comprehensive study of the Hillsdale-Dexter Swamp Gas fiasco. He was alive and healthy and gave me a ride home. A young man came from Western Michigan University the month of August --- writing a Master's thesis involving a UFO connection. An art show on campus was rather good and the artist was inspired by UFOs in her work.
I am surprised to discover that we are all dead or hospitalized, or that some people want us to be so they can move on.

The Death of Ufologists & June 24th

On June 24, 1908, Grover Cleveland, the 22nd & 24th US President (1885-89, 93-97), died at the age of 71. On June 30, 1908, the Tunguska event, a large aerial explosion of unknown origins, near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River, Russia, occurred. The UFO wave of 1909 in New Zealand followed sightings in the Southland in June 1908. But no one was thinking about deaths and strange shapes in the skies in 1908.

The topic of the death of ufologists is a modern but old one in the field. In 1971, UFO author Otto Binder claimed that at least 137 UFO investigators had died under mysterious circumstances during the 1960s. Binder's 1971 Saga article, "Liquidation of the UFO Investigators," summarized his findings.
Otto Binder (1911-1975), as well as John Keel (1930-2009), noticed a number of “seemingly coincidental deaths in the UFO field on 24 June.” These included in 1964 Frank Scully, author of one of the first crashed-saucer books; British contactees Arthur Bryant and Richard Church in 1967; and Willy Ley in 1969. Frank Edwards, popular UFO author and radio personality in the 1950s, died a few hours before Bryant. News of the sudden death of Frank Edwards stunned delegates assembled for the 1967 Congress of Scientific Ufologists in New York City’s Hotel Commodore on June 24th.

I have continued to track June 24th UFO-related deaths since Binder's time.

One person that has been overlooked is Robert Charroux, the best-known pen-name of Robert Joseph Grugeau (born April 7, 1909 - died June 24, 1978). He was a French author known for his ancient astronaut theories and writings in other Fortean subjects. Charroux's books include: Treasures Of The World (1967); The Mysterious Unknown (1972); Forgotten Worlds: Scientific Secrets of The Ancients and Their Warning For Our Time (1973); The Mysterious Past (1974); Legacy Of The Gods (1974); The Mysteries Of The Andes (1977); Masters Of The World: Groundbreaking New Revelations About The Ancient Astronauts (1979); and One Hundred Thousand Years Of Man’s Unknown History (1981).

Others have died on June 24th. An early advocate of flying saucer research, Jackie Gleason, died June 24, 1987. UFO writer Frank Edwards’ publisher, the maverick Lyle Stuart, died of a heart attack on June 24, 2006.

On June 24, 2013, former rocket scientist, computer scientist, and author of After the Internet: Alien Intelligence (2000), James Martin, 79, was found floating dead in the waters off Agar's Island. Dr. Martin bought Agar’s Island in 1977 and made his home in Bermuda. The multi-millionaire kept a relatively low profile in Bermuda.

For ufologists this date is of critical importance. On June 24, 1947 the modern era of UFOs began with Kenneth Arnold’s dramatic sighting of “saucers” flying between Mount Rainier and Mount Adams in Washington. The primary significance of this particular date, St. John’s Day, cannot be diminished within ufology.

Nick Redfern: Close Encounters of the Fatal Kind

Author Nick Redfern has a new book about UFO-related deaths that is being released on June 23, 2014. While it might have been more appropriate for his publisher to use the pub date of June 24, it does seem to be an intriguing coincidence. 

The book's title is Close Encounters of the Fatal Kind: Suspicious Deaths, Mysterious Murders, and Bizarre Disappearances in UFO History.

On May 16th, I asked Redfern a few questions about this subject as it relates to the RRR Group's writings. Here are his responses, which I appreciate Nick sharing with me.

 

Twilight Language: Do you feel that the field of Ufology is positively or negatively impacted when older, mature researchers die?

Nick Redfern: I think the field of Ufology can only be impacted negatively when a respected researcher dies. In simple terms, that person - presuming they were still actively doing research - is no longer able to offer anything else of value to the subject, so that's why I view such a passing as a negative event. If their files and archives are preserved, that's very good, since it allows us to ensure what they left behind doesn't disappear. It's like with John Keel: we have his legacy, his works. That's great. But it would be even greater still if he was still writing. Of course, if the researcher was an outright hoaxer, liar or criminal, then the scene is better off without them.

Twilight Language: Younger ufologists die too. How do you feel the field is altered when someone like Mac Tonnies dies, when his output is hardly known yet?

Nick Redfern: When a younger UFO researcher dies, I think that - first and foremost - it's a tragedy for the family. No child should die before his or her parents. So, realizing someone is a human being before a UFO researcher - and the effects that an early death leaves behind for the family and friends - is the main and most important thing. But, in terms of research and written output, it's always unfortunate if a young researcher has a great deal of potential and dies before their time. Who knows what they might have done in the decades ahead? It could have been groundbreaking. But, in such cases, we'll never, ever know. You mention Mac Tonnies. Mac died in his mid-30s, and only had a couple of books published. Potentially, he could have been writing for another 40 years. I only ever met Mac once (for a weekend conference in Canada 7 or 8 years ago), but there's no doubt he was a man who had a lot to offer the field of Ufology and the wider issue of Forteana in general.

Twilight Language: Do you think young ufologists in the RRR Group truly want the "old guard" to depart so the RRR folks and younger UFO theorists will be heard more clearly?

Nick Redfern: No, I don't think anyone in the RRR actually wants any of the old guard to die. What I think they do want, and what I think is very important too, is to encourage the next generation of researchers, and the one after that. Not at the expense of the old guard, but to ensure the subject continues to get an injection of new blood, new energy, new thought processes, and new research. The major problem I have with much of the old guard is they are very much stuck in the ETH mode. Now, yes, that may well be the right path to follow. But, on the other hand, it may not. But, I think a lot of people, as they get older, they get into a comfortable, safe zone. And, when it comes to Ufology, I don't think research should be comfortable or safe, at all. It should be challenging, and filled with people not afraid to rock the boat and question accepted beliefs. That's why I think new blood is vital, and I think that's what the RRR people are saying.

Twilight Language: Thank you, Nick.

<><><><><><><><>

In 2008, I left the following comment at the RRR site. I haven't changed my mind too greatly on these final thoughts.

It seems incredible to really read these words: "...the young crop of UFO mavens’ newer ideas will hold sway with the public and media, because this new generation isn’t conscripted by former old-think about UFOs, presenting instead original thought and pursuit of the UFO mystery..."

Being a radical Fortean observer watching the coming and going of all matter of writers, researchers, and theorists in the last four decades, you have given me a good chuckle.

Every "new" generation sees themselves as having the "real" solutions or the next best outside-the-box suggestions. Of course, it will only be something you will reflect upon when the next generation after you, the new group of "Young Ones" start nibbling at your aging heels, [and] says something similar to you.

It's always been that way, and it will continue so into the future.

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UFO Name Game Hits Shootings

In The Eighth Tower, a dark work, John A. Keel, as the publisher notes, pulls no punches, and probes the ultimate question: "Are we pawns in a celestial game?" 

Monday was the 13th of January. A day like any other day, but one in which the Fortean name game picked to play its game.

First up, Roswell. The Roswell Incident took place in the U.S. in 1947, when allegedly an unidentified flying object crashed on a ranch near Roswell, New Mexico. The name "Roswell" has become famous or infamous in association with UFOs, and Roswell today even has a museum dedicated to ufology.

On January 14th, Tuesday, a middle school student opened fire in his gym with a shotgun and critically wounded two students in Roswell, New Mexico.

The injured were a 13-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy who were "simply sitting in their gym waiting to go to class," New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez said. The shooting occurred shortly before class was to begin at Berrendo Middle School.

The Eastern New Mexico Medical Center confirmed it treated two patients, who were then air lifted to the University Medical Center in Lubbock, Texas, located about 175 miles from the middle school.

("The Lubbock Lights were an unusual formation of lights seen over the city of Lubbock, Texas, from August–September 1951. The Lubbock Lights incident received national publicity and is regarded as one of the first great UFO cases in the United States," notes Wikipedia. That is, perhaps, after the "Roswell Incident.")

A spokesperson for UMC said the boy, who the governor said was 12, is out of surgery and is listed in critical condition. The girl, 13, is also being treated at the hospital and is listed in serious condition, according to the spokesperson. A school staff member suffered a minor injury and declined treatment.

The names of the shooting victims or the shooter have not yet released.

After the shooting, here's how the Chicago Tribune described the town where it occurred:

Roswell, a city of 48,000 people in southeastern New Mexico, is best known for its association with UFO lore because of the 1947 crash at a nearby site of an object UFO proponents believe was an alien ship. The U.S. military says materials recovered near the site were from an experimental surveillance craft.

Earlier, on January 13th, a familiar surname in UFO circles - Reeves - became the focus of another shooting.

Curtis Reeves, Jr., 71, (shown above) a retired Tampa Police Captain was arrested and held without bail for shooting a man and his wife after an apparent argument over texting while at a Wesley Chapel, Florida, movie theater (Cobb Theater's Grove 16 & CineBistro).

At the Monday afternoon showing of the film Lone Survivor, Reeves and his wife were sitting behind another couple, Chad and Nicole Oulson, watching the previews, when Reeves became agitated with Chad for texting before the movie began.

Lone Survivor is set during the War in Afghanistan, the film dramatizes the failed United States Navy SEALs mission Operation Red Wings, in which a four-man SEAL reconnaissance team was tasked to track Taliban leader Ahmad Shah. was principally filmed in New Mexico, working 42 days there. Filming first took place at the Sangre de Cristo ("Blood of Christ") Mountains of the Santa Fe National Forest. Then the production moved to Chilili, New Mexico for two weeks of filming, and finally to the Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

At the Wesley Chapel-January 13th screening of Lone Survivor an argument broke out between the couples, popcorn was thrown, after which Reeves reportedly left the theater, came back, took out a gun and fired at Oulson and his wife (shown from their Facebook page). Officials said Nicole tried to block the bullet, resulting in a gunshot wound to her hand, before Chad was struck. And killed.

The Tampa Police Department issued a statement on Reeves Monday evening:

Curtis Reeves Jr. retired from the Tampa Police Department on 9/30/93 as a Captain. He was instrumental in establishing the department's first Tactical Response Team. We are not aware of any contact with the department since his departure more than 20 years ago.

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John A. Keel once raised the question of name selectivity in his writings: "Hundreds of thousands of phenomenal events have been described in newspapers, magazines and books, and hundreds of thousands of witnesses have been named in print. When dealing with such a large body of evidence – or population – certain laws of probability should surface. We might expect that more Smiths would see UFOs than anyone else, simply because there are more Smiths around. But, in actuality, the name Smith rarely appears in a UFO report."

What Keel found was that unusual names were the point of convergence for the phenomena. He saw McDaniel, Reeves/Reaves, Maddox, Heflin, Allen, Hill, and others, as being selected for UFO and related experiences, as I first pointed out in my "Name Game" chapter in 1983, in Mysterious America.

Perhaps it was merely a coincidence that on January 13th, the postal service delivered my copy of the new edition of John A. Keel's 1975 book, The Eighth Tower: On Ultraterrestrials and the Superspectrum. Anomalist Books, in conjunction with Keel's relatives, republished this book. Keel's first book, Jadoo, and his introspective ufological book, Operation Trojan Horse, where the author tackles the games of names and dates of the "Cosmic Joker," have all been reprinted by Anomalist Books, with newly added material.

Reeves. Roswell. Keel. 

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Saucer Smear's James W. Moseley Dies

Fortean friend, ufology humorist, and writer James W. Moseley, 81, died Friday night, November 16, 2012. He passed away at a Key West, Florida, hospital, several months after being diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus.

Upon hearing of the death of Moseley, Anomalist Books publisher and editor Patrick Huyghe said: "He was one of the last remaining old timers from the golden age of flying saucers. Goodbye, Jim."

I, Loren Coleman, first met James W. Moseley ("Jim" to his friends) when he, John Keel, and I were speaking at a Fortfest in the D.C. area, in 1973. The most vivid memory I have of that time is sitting with these two gentlemen in the dark and shabby lobby of a motel, listening to the foremost scholars of ufology decide what they would do that evening. I recall politely excusing myself to finetune my next day's presentation, as they skipped off, by foot, across the multilane highway, to visit a nearby striptease joint. And thus I was introduced to the braintrust of ufology, and knew what the end would look like - some sort of cosmic mix of humor and nudity galore!

For years, according to only a few readers, Moseley too frequently posted photographs of large-breasted women in his humorous ufology newsletter, Saucer Smear, confusing people who wished to claim that Moseley was gay, even though he said he was not (for he came from a generation of individuals who might remain closeted for years).

Did it matter what people thought? Ufology historian and Moseley friend Jerome Clark wrote me: "Well, it did matter. It mattered to Jim, who said he was not gay and who did not like it when people spread such speculation."

But it went beyond breasts: In the May 10, 2004, issue of Saucer Smear, Moseley highlighted the republishing of a book on three alien monsters raping a woman named Barbara Turner in her bedroom. 

Actually, it was quite obvious. Moseley was a comic, extremely interested sex, and loved to be the center-of-attention. Certainly, his lifestyle was secretive to some. For almost thirty years, Moseley lived in Florida. 

Moseley with a large poster of marine treasure hunter Mel Fisher.

In 1984, Moseley established an antiques store in Key West, Florida. He also made money in real estate. In 1992, Moseley donated his Peruvian material to the Graves Museum of Archaeology and Natural History, located in Dania, Florida, where it is on permanent display.

James Moseley was a pivotal chronicler of a now-famed mystery that issued from his interest in ancient Peruvian artifacts. It is to be recalled that the Nazca Lines were first discovered by the Peruvian archaeologist Toribio Mejia Xesspe, who spotted them when hiking through the foothills in 1927. He discussed them at a conference in Lima in 1939. Maria Reiche, a German-born mathematician and archaeologist, first studied and set out to preserve the Nazca Lines in 1940. Paul Kosok, a historian from Long Island University, is credited as the first scholar to seriously study the Nazca Lines in the USA, on site in Peru, in 1940-41. But it was Moseley who first wrote about the Nazca Lines as an intriguing Fortean phenomena in Fate Magazine, in October 1955, suggesting a mysterious origin, long before they interested alternative writers such as Erich von Däniken (1968), Henri Stierlin (1983) and Gerald Hawkins (1990).

Moseley co-wrote a memoir with Karl T. Pflock, entitled Shockingly Close to the Truth! (2002), telling many of his own "secrets." He decided to reveal much about himself, but for the decade after its publication, few were able to decipher which of his "facts" were jokes and which were reality.

James W. Moseley, who was born on August 4, 1931 in New York City, was more than merely an American ufologist, that's for certain.

General biographical details about Moseley include the following:

Over his career, he has exposed UFO hoaxers and has engineered hoaxes of his own. He is known for the newsletter Saucer Smear.
Moseley was the son of U.S. Army Major General George Van Horn Moseley. Moseley attended Princeton University for two years before dropping out. He became interested in UFOs following the 1947 claims of pilot Kenneth Arnold, but his interest deepened following the 1948 death of U.S. Air Force pilot Thomas Mantell, in pursuit of a UFO.
In July, 1954, Moseley co-founded Saucer News, a periodical known for its unorthodox, "freewheeling" (Clark, 2002) style. Saucer News only occasionally featured serious UFO research; Moseley was among the first to publicize evidence against the claims of leading "contactee" George Adamski. In 1953 he investigated the Ralph Horton flying saucer crash.
Saucer News was sold to Gray Barker in 1968. Moseley became a regular lecturer on UFOs for several years and organized an annual convention. In 1970, he founded a newsletter that went by several titles until Moseley settled on Saucer Smear in 1981. He produce[d] the newsletter irregularly, and [sold] pdf issues and subscriptions from his site. Saucer Smear typically ha[d] a joking, gossipy tone.

Moseley report[ed] (Story, 1980; Clark, 2002) that he has accepted, then rejected, a number of explanations for UFOs. In roughly chronological order, he considered the extraterrestrial hypothesis; a secret weapon/aircraft hypothesis, psychic/supernatural/interdimensional hypotheses in the vein of John Keel or Jacques Vallee; deep skepticism; and agnosticism. According to Jerome Clark, he ha[d] "entertained just about every view it is possible to hold about UFOs, without ever managing to say anything especially interesting or memorable about any of them." (Clark 2005). Source.

Of course, parts of Moseley's life were often ignored in online mainstream bio profiles. One hoax that he did acknowledge was the Adamski-involved Straith hoax letter. Moseley was quoted by Jerome Clark as stating that he committed multiple UFO "hoaxes." But which ones and how many?

Moseley often appeared on the old Long John Nebel radio program.

Moseley had a close relationship with many founding figures in ufology. For example, Moseley often called early "flying saucer author" Gray Barker, his closest friend. Moseley noted in his Shockingly Close to the Truth, that Barker died on December 6, 1984, "after a long series of illnesses" in a Charleston, West Virginia, hospital. But the cause was somewhat mysterious and the diagnosis was always unclear. Moseley wrote that "the more or less simultaneous failure of various organs, due most probably to AIDS (though it was not diagnosed as such in those days)" killed Barker. In filmmaker Ralph Coon's documentary about Barker, Whispers from Space, the Clarksburg investigator is depicted as a closeted gay man. Barker was only 59 when he died. Moseley appeared in the documentary, discussing their friendship. The fact that Moseley was straight, and he could have a gay friend, of course, is understood today, but less so in their generation.

Moseley's Saucer Smear was full of news, as well as humor. He showed loyalty to his associates, and included notices to help his friends. For instance, in 2007 and 2008, Moseley carried a call for donations to be given for the continued development of the International Cryptozoology Museum.

Goodbye, indeed. There goes another old friend many of us shall miss.

James W. Moseley, 2007.

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Thanks to Gene Steinberg, Larry W. Bryant, and especially Patrick Huyghe for the sad news.

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