Bill Knell
This is a long post, but I thought it was appropriate. After I was so upset by hearing Bill Knell spew his stuff, I started wondering how long his antics have been known.
I found this Fidonet post dated 10 Jul 1994. The Fidonet post references an April '93 (Vol. 1, #3) issue of The REALL News magazine.
The source url is here:
http://www.anomalies.net/archive/ftp_archives/ftp.eskimo.com/ufo/rutkows/knell
I am pasting the entire post here. It is most interesting.
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From alt.paranet.ufo Sun Jul 10 15:18:28 1994
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From:
[email protected] (David Bloomberg)
Newsgroups: alt.paranet.ufo
Subject: Re: Bill Knell
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Date: 6 Jul 94 00:12:26 GMT
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In a msg to All on <jul 01="" 16:57="">, HikuPtah of 1:30163/150 writes:
H> whats this guy all about!!!
Time for my regular Knell post:
The following is an article from the April '93 (Vol. 1, #3) issue of The REALL
News. It may be reprinted by other skeptics organizations as long as proper
credit is given. REALL also requests that you please send a copy of any
publication that reprints one of our articles for our files. This article may
also be cross-posted onto other appropriate conferences.
This article represents the opinions of its author, and does not necessarily
represent the opinions of REALL or its officers.
============================================================================
Saucers for Sale:
An Evening With A UFO Cheerleader
By Bob Ladendorf and David Bloomberg
[Bob Ladendorf and David Bloomberg attended the "U.F.O.s Around
The World" slide show given by Bill Knell, of Island Skywatch, in
December of last year. They videotaped the show, with Knell's
permission; this is their evaluation of that lecture.]
Watching Bill Knell present his two-hour slide show
history of UFOs is like sitting in on a major product sales
presentation at a trade show: a lot of sales talk mixed
with very little critical comment. A self-proclaimed "UFO
Investigator," Knell showed up in Springfield, Illinois on
December 14 to give his talk to several dozen interested
individuals in a Holiday Inn room. This wasn't free,
of course, but cost $10 a head, plus he had publications and
UFO-related tapes selling as high as $30, including the
discredited MJ-12 papers.
A large, soft-spoken middle-aged man with seemingly
boundless energy as he unendingly discussed UFO matters,
Knell seemed to be a nice man, one who indeed travels with
his wife and children from place to place giving his slide
show and displaying crudely made posters full of UFO
clippings and tiny, handwritten copy that one must get down
on knees to read (see photo). A sort of traveling salesman
with his family in tow.
But what of his messages? What are the results of his
investigations? Does he give a balanced history of UFOs?
In his presentation, Knell sketched a number of claims,
concluding they probably involved alien spacecraft and/or a
huge conspiracy at the highest levels of the U.S. (and other
countries') government. His evidence consisted largely of
photographs, many of which were blurry, indistinct, and, in
the least, inconclusive; videos of lit, unclear objects;
eyewitness accounts; and personal testimony.
During his presentation, the room remained dark, and he
seamlessly finished one topic and launched into the next one
barely pausing for a breath and, consequently, discouraging
any questions from the audience during the actual lecture.
At the end, he took a few questions but continued his
constant talking, effectively preventing any extended
discussions or follow-up questions about his evidence.
Even briefly discussing all of Knell's claims and
information would fill several newsletters. Luckily, much
of that information has been investigated or debunked
before. For example, Knell spent time dealing with the
Nazca lines and von Daniken (which most mainstream UFO
groups now totally disavow), the Bermuda Triangle, the "face"
on Mars, the Roswell crash, etc.
In addition, it is simply impossible to check out much
of the information presented, since it is often related as
first- or second-hand accounts. He went here or there and
talked to him or did that. Or, in other cases, he claims to
have verifiable evidence for some obscure case or another,
but won't show it to his audience because of his "fears" due
to some conspiracy (see below for conspiracy details). A good
example of this is the photo he claims to have which supposedly
shows a car surrounded on all sides by trees. According to him,
it was lifted by an alien craft and deposited in this strange
position. Such a photo would seem to be excellent evidence,
if it really did show that the car couldn't have gotten to
that location by ordinary means. Alas, he says he is afraid
to show it.
However, there are still plenty of points that can be
checked. Some of them are made easier by Knell when he
contradicts himself within the lecture. It is difficult to
catch such contradictions at first listen due to his rapid-
fire style, but they are certainly there.
For example, early in his talk, he discussed how the
shape of UFOs has stayed very much the same throughout their
history. He uses this to try to show consistency. Later,
however, he discusses the wide variety of shapes, including
saucers, cigars, triangles, etc., without mentioning the
obvious discrepancy.
cont...
--
David Bloomberg - via ParaNet node 1:104/422
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INTERNET:
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From alt.paranet.ufo Sun Jul 10 15:18:28 1994
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From:
[email protected] (David Bloomberg)
Newsgroups: alt.paranet.ufo
Subject: Re: Bill Knell, II/III
Message-ID: <
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cont...
At other times, he made statements which, while not
self-contradicting, are still easily shown to be bunk. He
made one such statement when discussing a supposed secret
room used by the government to store alien spacecraft. He
said it was even hidden to "X-ray satellites, and believe
me, there are such things." While this fits nicely into
some of the conspiracy theories he espouses (again, see
below), it simply doesn't seem to be true. While there are
likely "X-ray satellites", they are probably used for
measuring X-rays originating in space. There would be
little use for an X-ray satellite to scan the Earth, for
several reasons. First, according to several meteorologists
questioned by the authors, the atmosphere absorbs the vast
majority of X-rays. Also, X-ray pictures are generally made
by having some detector (usually film) BEHIND the target.
While there are technologies that use scattered X-rays, they
would not be the least bit useful for satellite photography.
So the listener has only Mr. Knell's word against this
evidence that any such thing exists.
An even better example of this was his discussion of
the Carp, Canada, UFO case. REALL Organizing Committee Chairman
David Bloomberg discussed some of this at the first REALL meeting,
so only a brief summary will appear here. Basically, Knell
claimed that he was sent the video of a UFO, the photo of the
supposed alien (which looks more like a guy in a bad mask than
anything else), and some Canadian government documents.
Unfortunately for his case, this case was recently featured on
both Unsolved Mysteries and Sightings, where a significantly
different picture was drawn. Foremost among the differences is
that the investigator interviewed on those shows, while saying the
tape may show a "real" UFO (as opposed to a hoax), admitted
that the photo of the alien and the government documents
were almost certainly hoaxes. The documents, in particular,
were full of misspellings, referred to a conspiracy dealing
with China, aliens, Israel, and nuclear weapons, and was,
overall, just a poor imitation of Canadian government
documents. None of this was relayed by Knell. He flashed a
slide of the documents on the screen briefly and told the
audience that he had come into possession of them through a
Freedom of Information request.
Other problems with his presentation of this case
revolve around his story that he knows the alleged
photographer ("Guardian"), and the description of the events
that surrounded the making of the video. These things are
all contradicted by several other UFO investigators who
claim that they, not Knell, were contacted by Guardian. All
in all, Knell's presentation of this case smacks of
embellishment, at the very least. One is forced to wonder
if the other information he presented is as accurate as
this.
Another technique that Knell uses, which can be noticed
by a careful listener, is the setting up and knocking down
of "straw men". For example, referring to the two men in
England who came forward a little while ago and admitted
that they had made a number of crop circles, Knell says,
"a couple of guys said, `Yeah, we made ALL the circles in
England.'" (Emphasis added) He goes on to explain why they
couldn't possibly have done so and concludes with, "I guess
they're probably liars." Unfortunately for Mr. Knell, those
men never claimed to have made ALL the circles. According
to the Winter, 1992 Skeptical Inquirer (p. 148), the two men
"claimed they had been responsible for MANY of the giant
wheat-field patterns made over the years." (Emphasis added)
Yes, he is correct in stating that they couldn't have made
them all. But since they never claimed to, his argument
amounts to nothing. He uses this type of technique several
times throughout the lecture, especially when discussing
items which have gotten the attention of skeptics in the
past. His actions in knocking down straw men is only one
indication that he may be more of a UFO cheerleader than an
investigator.
cont...
--
David Bloomberg - via ParaNet node 1:104/422
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INTERNET:
[email protected]
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Inquiries regarding ParaNet, or mail directed to Michael Corbin, should
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From alt.paranet.ufo Sun Jul 10 15:18:29 1994
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From:
[email protected] (David Bloomberg)
Newsgroups: alt.paranet.ufo
Subject: Re: Bill Knell, III/III
Message-ID: <
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Date: 6 Jul 94 00:15:20 GMT
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cont...
The most consistent thread throughout Knell's lecture
is the conspiracy. Of course, the government (and probably
foreign governments too) is conspiring to keep secret the
"fact" that we have been visted by (and captured) aliens.
In order to keep this secret, they have obviously needed to
do some strange things. For example, one guy who took some
seemingly pretty good photos of UFOs in Gulf Breeze,
Florida, was found to have apparently been hiding a model of
the EXACT craft in his attic (he sold his house and the new
residents found it). Knell implies that the FBI visited
this man, stole construction material from him, crafted the
model, and planted it in the attic.
Other parts of the conspiracy include his thoughts that
the U.S. built the former Soviet Union's space shuttle (in
order to help defend the world from a possible alien
invasion), and government agencies have undertaken various alleged
illegal activities. Of course, he doesn't leave out the infamous
MJ-12 papers. These documents are alleged to support the idea
that there is/was a secret government project dealing with UFOs.
As mentioned earlier, he even sells copies of the papers, but
no copies of the many articles debunking them, such as those
written by Phil Klass (SI, Winter 1987-88; SI, Spring 1988; SI, Winter 1990).
He also presented no information about the debunking in the lecture
itself, even though he admitted in one-on-one questions
after the lecture that they may very well be fake. What he
did say in the lecture was that he doesn't know "if this is
true. We don't know because the government denies these
documents are real." As with other such theories, the
government's denial only furthers the conspiracy, with
little regard for the possibility that the government denies
that the documents are real for the simple reason that THEY
AREN'T.
Finally, at the end of the presentation, Knell opened
up the floor to questions. However, rather than answering
many of them, if those answers might have brought out
possible contradictions or evidence contrary to the
information he had presented, he talked around the issue.
For example, Bloomberg asked him, "I see several contradictions
in many cases. Aliens fly here from many light years away,
only to crash into a farmhouse. Some abductees have massive
operations and come back without a mark, yet others have
relatively minor 'surgery' done to them, and show huge scars
to prove it. And some UFOs do their best to hide from
anybody who might be watching, while at other times they fly
around with all their lights on. How do you account for
these?" Knell never answered the question. Instead, he
said something about how humans simply can't understand the
thinking process of aliens, because they are so different.
He didn't give time for a followup, but jumped to the next
question. Another person tried to ask a followup later, but
Knell again avoided answering, earning a shaking head from
that questioner.
Bill Knell claims to be a UFO investigator. An
unbiased investigator is one who searches for the facts of
an event and reports the results accurately and with
measurable aspects of evidence, as in criminal
investigations. "[Investigators] work throughout their
investigation fully recognizing that even a minor
contradiction or error may destroy confidence in their
investigation." (Criminal Investigation, 2nd Edition, Weston
and Wells, p. 1) However, Knell seems more inclined to
shrug off contradictory evidence. In many cases, he
certainly doesn't present it to his audience, even when he
knows it exists. He claims to want people to make up their
own minds based on all the evidence, but only gives half of
the story. All these things make him seem less an
investigator and more a UFO cheerleader or salesman.
--
David Bloomberg - via ParaNet node 1:104/422
UUCP: !scicom!paranet!User_Name
INTERNET:
[email protected]
======================================================================
Inquiries regarding ParaNet, or mail directed to Michael Corbin, should
be sent to:
[email protected]. Or you can phone voice at 303-429-2654/
Michael Corbin
Director
ParaNet Information Services
</jul>
