Did Bill Moore essentially create most of the UFO story?

[PCarr]

I have been doing a bit of reading and continually ask myself, where would ufology be if there was no Bill Moore? This is the guy who wrote the first book on Roswell, worked closely with the government in shaping the Bennewitz story, and was one of the people who "obtained" the first MJ-12 documents.

Ladies and gentlemen, those three cases make up about 75% of what ufology has been over the last 20-25 years!

I disagree with that contention right there. You are confusing public uproar with research. Of serious research, less than 1%. Well less.

 

[Trajanus]

I haven't seen it. But I recall Lance Moody said he was joking and probably laughing afterwards. Not sure IIRC but did someone say he was distraught or crying afterwards?

 

[IsaacKoi]

Is this speech online anywhere?

For those unfamiliar with the background, that was the speech in which Bill Moore claimed he had been recruited to obtain information on Paul Bennewitz and certain others (and pass disinformation to Paul Bennewitz),

I don't think anyone has made the poor quality video that exists of that speech available online.

The paper that Bill Moore presented in his speech at the MUFON Symposium in Las Vegas in 1989 was published in four parts of an article by Bill Moore which I hadn't seen pulled together before online.

The first part of Moore's presentation is in the article "UFOs and the US Government : Part I" in the MUFON Journal November 1989 at pages 8-16, 18. The second part is in the article "UFOs and the US Government : Part II" in MUFON Journal December 1989 at pages 8-14. The third part in that series was published in Bill Moore's Focus magazine in 1989 (Volume 4, Issues 10-12 at pages 4-6).The fourth part in that series was published in Bill Moore's Focus magazine in 1990 (Volume 5, Issues 1-3 at pages 18-20).

I've uploaded these articles to the links below for ease of reference:
1: https://app.box.com/s/11iujibvvsdl10j9m2pj
2: 1989 december - MUFON article by Bill Moore - UFOs and the Governmentg part 2.pdf - File Shared from Box
3. https://app.box.com/s/i97qw2g01hhyt33t0oor
4: 1990 Focus magazine - Article by Bill Moore - UFOs and the Government Part 4.pdf - File Shared from Box

Bill Moore referred in that speech to making a FOIA request for a copy of the FBI's file on him. That FOIA request to the FBI is referred to in the second part of articles in the MUFON Journal setting out the paper that Bill Moore delivered at that Symposium.

Since I hadn't seen anyone else make those documents from Bill Moore's FBI file available online I uploaded a copy a while ago.

The fourth in the above series of articles was kindly supplied to me by Lee Graham.

Lee Graham has also supplied a copy of Bill Moore's request to the FBI for his FBI file, and a copy of the documents provided by the FBI in response to that request. I understand from Lee Graham that Bill Moore asked him to circulate copies of that FBI file.

Since Bill Moore asked Lee Graham to circulate these FBI documents (and Lee Graham was happy for me to upload them), I've uploaded those documents to the link below:
Bill Moore FBI file.pdf - File Shared from Box

All of the above PDF files can be downloaded from a folder at:
Box | Simple Online Collaboration: Online File Storage, FTP Replacement, Team Workspaces

(It is probably unnecessary to include a health warning mentioning that since these documents were sourced from Bill Moore, rather than directly from the FBI, they should not necessary be taken as authentic and/or complete. Prior to Bill Moore's death, confirming the position with the FBI would require a privacy waiver signed by Bill Moore).

 

[Gene Steinberg]

There are several people over the years who have been pivotal towards spreading the UFO legend. Let's not forget Major Donald Keyhoe in the 1950s and 1960s, and even Ray Palmer, who co-authored the Maury Island book, "The Coming of the Saucers," with Kenneth Arnold. Arnold was once referred to as "the man who started it all."

If not for Arnold, where might the UFO mystery have taken us?

Consider how the field might have gone had there been no Keyhoe, no Moore, and, in fact, now Frank Scully to write "Behind the Flying Saucers." A little less publicity over the years and we wouldn't be here doing any of this nowadays.

Maybe I'd be better off, but the vast, vast majority of my closest friends came out of my interest in this field. That even included Wife Number One, with whom I'm still friendly after all these years.

 

[Trajanus]

Without Friendman and Moore, what do we have on Roswell? It happened in 47 but no one said anything about it until the late 70's.

Nonsense. Edwards mentioned it in '67 Flying Saucers Serious business. KDR cited other instances.

My point is, these three "major" cases can all be a government ruse, fabricated to mislead the public and/or our enemies. They could have capitalized on a very real phenomena and put the pieces in place to create a frame work of cases that are nothing more than governmental invention.

Dulce certainly, Roswell no way.

 

[Han]

Is their any connection between Bill Moore and Eric Von Daniken? because Ancient Aliens seem to be extremely popular "theory" at the moment.

 

[Sentry]

Nonsense. Edwards mentioned it in '67 Flying Saucers Serious business.

Maybe he should have said, "no one said anything about it being a genuine saucer crash with bodies and scores of witnesses until the late 70's."
Dave Rudiak compiled a (padded) list of Roswell mentions in the press during the "lost years."
Post 1947 Roswell references

Turning to Han's question, of all the thins Bill Moore is accused of, Ancient Aliens is not his fault. The idea that old mysterious sightings of things in the sky were flying saucers was there from Donald Keyhoe's first article in True magazine. Adamski and others picked up on it and it's been around ever since. I'm not sure who first suggested the aliens were the builders of pyramids and such.

If Moore has any hand in this, there was a bit in the MJ-12 documents stating that they sent an ET to be a spiritual leader for Earth 2000 years ago, hinting that Jesus was an alien!

 

[storge]

My two cents: Stanton Friedman didn't invent or even bring to public consciousness Roswell, it was a festering mass of hush-hush rumor and innuendo over the years. Its memory never really went away. Likewise, I think Moore is perfectly willing to take credit for everything, while his contribution wasn't really all that universal, and when he "made up" the Grays, for example, he used existing prototypes and simply embellished, see Crowley's Lem or Liam drawing ca. 1947.

Palmer was certainly pivotal in bringing the saucers to the public, and Rich Shaver had them in his stories in Palmer's mag before June, 1947. I'm willing to go either way on Maury Island.

When I read the first few posts in this thread, the question that popped into my head was: was Moore responsible for most of what was said about the Bermuda Triangle? And why didn't he develop that mysterium more?

 

[Trajanus]

My two cents: Stanton Friedman didn't invent or even bring to public consciousness Roswell, it was a festering mass of hush-hush rumor and innuendo over the years.

Na, it was based on the recollections of a key participant, Marcel sr. Friedman certainly didn't invent Roswell. But he did bring Marcel's story to our attention.

I'm willing to go either way on Maury Island.

I thought KDR showed it was fake.

 

[Burnt State]

I just wanted a reminder on the subject of myth making and the many roles played willingly and unwillingly to help develop mythos. If you look at them on their own: the Bermuda Triangle, The Loch Ness Monster, The Philadelphia Experiment, Chariots of the Gods, Bigfoot and UFO's there is something unique about the last one. In the other cases writers and witnesses have informed each other to collaborate in building the myth. Scraps of history and snatches of images have evolved in their own way to make and perpetuate the mysteries of our times ultimately to be relegated to cultural entertainment in the form of bad reality television.

What's interesting about UFO's is just how involved militaristic powers and perception management folk are in cultivating, distracting, disinforming, intimidating, manipulating and in humiliating citizens of all kinds. It gives weight to the subject and its history. In some ways I disagree with Marduk as in simply bringing high level scrutiny to bear on cases in the modern era you will hardly be able to determine what is and isn't earthly experiments i.e. NIDS.

I think the real meat to be found is in trimming off all the gristle and fat from the past, to better uncover the real bones of cases, minus the mythic aspects that have been padded on by those that would confuse and obfuscate. I think having a more clear vision of a case and dissecting it completely (i.e. Curt's work in the Cash Landrum case) will lead to better conclusions about what is spin, who are the spinners and what if anything was really seen.

In part four of Bill Moore's opus on Gov't involvement of UFO's we see him reinforce the meme of not pursuing the UFO reality as it will only bring harm to you, your sanity and your family. Stay away! Keep Out! Don't Report it! And please stop with those FOIA's! That's been the message since the late 40's and Arnold's modern era. In this way it's almost impossible to verify what's worth pursuing as limits have been established and the boundaries and territories of the UFO enigma continue to be well guarded and used for ulterior motives to this day.

Those who get close get burned by human agents or tend to destabilize on their own in the ongoing climate of UFO witness as loon.

Investigating the past seems to reveal motives to some extent and the reactions and choices the powers that be make in cases like Bennewitz, Arnold or Spaur might tell us more about what actually happened. After all, human agents have their own patterns too.

 

[Sentry]

I was just thinking about this sort of stuff yesterday, and this thread is a good place to ask the questions. I'm trying to look at the MJ-12 stuff as I would a short story, trying to figure out the author's intent, the message or moral of the story and so forth.

1) What is the underlying story being told (or hinted at) by the MJ-12 briefing document?
2) Does it align with anyone's UFO theories?

 

[Trajanus]

1) What is the underlying story being told (or hinted at) by the MJ-12 briefing document?
2) Does it align with anyone's UFO theories?

I saw an interesting take in The Alien Plan for Earth but it's speculation, and just a POD book.

 

[Burnt State]

1) What is the underlying story being told (or hinted at) by the MJ-12 briefing document?

What appears to resonate from the tangle is a narrative that wants us to know the history of UFO's is something the gov't is on top of, that they've been working on for a while..."we've got the best minds working on this, totally under control and nothing for anyone to be worried about at all" is what it says to me. The other core thrust of this narrative is the perpetuation of a nuanced and embellished history involving the familiar touchstones as we know them today: Arnold's sighting, Roswell's dead alien bodies, secret clandestine study groups etc.

Unlike Mosely & Barker's Lost Creek Saucer forgery this is a much more involved, dedicated and detailed approach to keeping saucers in the news and in our minds. I really like the comparison between the Gimlin footage and the Lost Creek Saucer footage in terms of the intentions behind the forgeries that you suggest on the Mosely memorial site. I see MJ-12 as yet another injection and attempt to control the narrative of ufology.

Unique to perpetuating the UFO narrative is that the players are many, much more serious, involve citizens and varying levels of gov't, and are intertwined with the socio-cultural fabric on a much more pervasive level. It seems that many hands have all been responsible for all the ingredients placed into the UFO stone soup cauldron. Moore, Doty, Howe, Barker, Mosely, three letter agencies, crop circle makers, researchers & investigators etc.: all have their own intentions and reasons for the narrative elements that they add to the story.

MJ-12 is about maintaining its version of UFO history. Who benefits from this version of events? What other purposes are served from this specfic narration? Was this an attempt to make something erroneous, like the philadelphia experiment, a factual reality?

 

[Sentry]

What appears to resonate from the tangle is a narrative that wants us to know the history of UFO's is something the gov't is on top of, that they've been working on for a while...

I'd almost forgotten that before MJ-12 was a document, it was an unfinished novel, so there was a rich amount of material to draw upon. As you say, much of it seems to be about "confirming" standard ETH UFO beliefs, especially those about a Cosmic Watergate, but takes it further by naming the organization and men who were the gatekeepers of the knowledge.

 

[boomerang]

I was just thinking about this sort of stuff yesterday, and this thread is a good place to ask the questions. I'm trying to look at the MJ-12 stuff as I would a short story, trying to figure out the author's intent, the message or moral of the story and so forth.

1) What is the underlying story being told (or hinted at) by the MJ-12 briefing document?
2) Does it align with anyone's UFO theories?

I haven't spent much time pondering the MJ-12 documents themselves, as I think they smack too much of fiction to take seriously. Are we talking about undeveloped film mysteriously dropped at Jaime Shandera's doorstep? Gimme a break.

But the obvious informational takeaway--for me anyway--is that UFOs/flying saucers are of the utmost concern at the highest levels of government. It's the kind of stuff that rallies the true believers while reinforcing the laughter curtain for most.

Whether related to the documents or not, I still think Haut's press release to the public, announcing to the world that an alien spacecraft had been recovered by our government, was not a security slip up. But it was rather part of a well orchestrated psychological operation, or dis-info as distraction for purposes still not known. Shandera, Moore, Haut's "oopsy!" press release and more: We are still in the proverbial hall of mirrors.

 

[Rizla]

WithoutLimits, I need not agree with you on every damned political thing to give you righterous props when you nail an important point in spades.

"I have been doing a bit of reading and continually ask myself, where would ufology be if there was no Bill Moore? This is the guy who wrote the first book on Roswell, worked closely with the government in shaping the Bennewitz story, and was one of the people who "obtained" the first MJ-12 documents."

Without Bill Moore and his friends, Ufology would be a lot poorer in terms of conference attendences, book sales, and a Mount Everest of pure f-in B.S.

It's been said by many sources that various MJ-12 supporters said, on a few occasions, that releasing phony documents was A-OK, so long as it led to release of "the real thing." There are lots references for this, google-able, I'm sure. I don't begrudge any of the well-known stand-up comedians earning performance fees for something fraudulent they believed in, but... Falsifying documents is another legal matter -- completely crazy, to be charitable... polluting the waters of history. Because this is "ufology", you can't make money if you give the game away. Even those who don't create the fakes continue to rake in the lecture fees. Why is Stan Friedman's continuing promotion of the MJ-12 docs any more respected than an endorsement of the fraudulent Hitler diaries? All this stuff made Ufology die a slow death, unfortunately.

 

[Burnt State]

More like Ufology as zombie. All the dead cases keep coming back to life to stumble around and moan over and over again.

 

[boomerang]

More like Ufology as zombie. All the dead cases keep coming back to life to stumble around and moan over and over again.

So True. What seems in process since 1947 is the formation of legend and mythology based on the tradition of the mystical seer and followers. Or in this case many seers in the form of sincere and credible witnesses.

 

[Burnt State]

So True. What seems in process since 1947 is the formation of legend and mythology based on the tradition of the mystical seer and followers. Or in this case many seers in the form of sincere and credible witnesses.

How would you identify or define the role of researchers and writers such as Greer, Jacobs, LMHowe, Strieber and Hopkins? Are these all the mystical seers? Some of Whitley and Linda's personal incarnations have definitely travelled directly along the lines of seer and mystical guru. Greer also encourages such behaviour from his audience. The Alien Abduction phenomenon, like The Turkey Aliens on Deck Video, the one armed Swiss farmer, or implant believers all seem to connect deeply to their followers and create scenarios of dividing lines amongst the populous - you believe or you don't.

This leaves little room for the excluded middle and all those witnesses who do not necessarily want to get caught up in any religious fervour, or have their experience pre-determined & pre-defined by the guru or prophet. This rise of the ego has stalled any real progress in the field. As Chris O'Brien always says, "the message is more important than you," and without someone like a Jim Moseley around to make fun of the self-appointed prophets the field as a whole suffers and stagnates.

 

[boomerang]

How would you identify or define the role of researchers and writers such as Greer, Jacobs, LMHowe, Strieber and Hopkins? Are these all the mystical seers? Some of Whitley and Linda's personal incarnations have definitely travelled directly along the lines of seer and mystical guru. Greer also encourages such behaviour from his audience. The Alien Abduction phenomenon, like The Turkey Aliens on Deck Video, the one armed Swiss farmer, or implant believers all seem to connect deeply to their followers and create scenarios of dividing lines amongst the populous - you believe or you don't.

This leaves little room for the excluded middle and all those witnesses who do not necessarily want to get caught up in any religious fervour, or have their experience pre-determined & pre-defined by the guru or prophet. This rise of the ego has stalled any real progress in the field. As Chris O'Brien always says, "the message is more important than you," and without someone like a Jim Moseley around to make fun of the self-appointed prophets the field as a whole suffers and stagnates.

I use the term "seer" loosely, as I see the role of most sincere witnesses as a kind of incidental instrument for whatever the UFO is trying to tell us. Assuming that it is. I would place the individuals you cited in different categories. All operate on the public stage and we may assume they are motivated at least in part by a need to convert the non-believer and create a following. Some, I think, are seekers of a rational model for the UFO. Some seem motivated mostly by opportunism and a need for recognition, etc. Or perhaps some mixture of these.

"Excluded middle" is indeed a good term for the thousands of us who simply want to know what is going on expressed as an explanation within the bounds of science and logic rather than as a religious or spiritual experience only. But after all these decades of diligent categorizing and intense speculation, we in the excluded middle are still mostly left with the latter of the two. My point is that otherwise reluctant witnesses become, in the larger societal mythology, unwitting seers by default in the overall scheme of things when looked at from an historical point of view. No one individual credible witness of a high strangeness sighting could be regarded as a force to change our belief systems. But collectively and over the decades, perhaps they do.

I've stumbled back into the Vallee camp again. It's just that the UFO seems intent on making itself into a kind of mythological belief system rather than a part of our rational world.