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John A. Keel | |
|---|---|
.jpg) John Keelc. 1957. | |
| Born | (1930-03-25)March 25, 1930 Hornell, New York, U.S. |
| Died | July 3, 2009(2009-07-03) (aged 79) New York, New York, U.S. |
| Occupations | |
John Alva Keel, bornAlva John Kiehle (March 25, 1930 – July 3, 2009), was anAmericanjournalist and influentialufologist who is known best as author ofThe Mothman Prophecies.[1]
Keel was born inHornell, New York, the son of a singer and bandleader. His parents soon divorced and Keel was raised by his grandparents inPerry, New York until his mother remarried.[1]
He was fascinated by magic from an early age and was known as "Houdini" by his friends. He loved reading about magic, humor, science, travel, and aviation. His first story was published in a magicians' magazine when he was twelve years old. At age fourteen he was determined to become a writer. He had a column in the Perry Herald namedScraping The Keel, he published ascience fictionfanzine namedThe Lunarite and he routinely sent stories to magazines in New York. At the age of sixteen he had taken all of the science courses at his school and decided to quit school and write full time.[1][2][3]
At seventeen Keel relocated to New York City to make a living as a writer. He lived in Greenwich Village and became the editor of a poetry magazine.[3] He worked as a freelance contributor to newspapers, scriptwriter for local radio and television outlets, and author of articles such as "Are You A Repressed Sex Fiend?"[1]
Keel was drafted into theUS Army during theKorean War. Because he had worked with radio and television he was assigned to the radio stationAmerican Forces Network atFrankfurt, Germany and started writing radio programs. Within one year he was the chief of productions for the network. When his two years of military service ended he was offered and accepted a civilian job for the Army.[3]
He claimed that while in the Army he was trained in psychological warfare as a propaganda writer.[4]
After his time with the military he was a foreign radio correspondent in Paris, Berlin, Rome and Egypt.[1]
At age 24 he resigned and traveled for four years around the Middle East and south-east Asia. He tried to find performers of theIndian rope trick, investigate fakirs and yogis and he even tried to trackthe Yeti. Keel's journey was accounted in first published book,Jadoo (1957).[1][3]
During the 1960s, he worked for television. He was the chief writer for game showPlay Your Hunch and wrote for tv series such asMack & Myer for Hire,the Chuck McCann Show,the Clay Cole Show,Get Smart,The Monkees andLost in Space.[2][5]
He wrote some novels using the pseudonym, Harry Gibbs.[2] In 1966 he wrote a fiction novel namedThe Fickle Finger of Fate. It sold an estimated 600,000 copies.[6]
In 1966Playboy asked him to write an article about UFOs for the magazine, but his work was rejected and never printed. Keel had however become interested in the subject.[2] He claimed to have traveled to 20 states and interviewed thousands of witnesses, several hundreds of them in depth. The material was used in his bookOperation Trojan Horse.[4] He also made repeated visits toPoint Pleasant, West Virginia, and investigated sightings that was the topic of his best known book,The Mothman Prophecies (1975).[2]
His interviews and thoughts concerning UFOs were published in magazines such as Flying Saucer Review, Flying Saucer, Saga and Saucer News.[7]
He was a technical advisor tothe Library of Congress (1968-69), and special consultant to the office of Scientific Research and Bureau of Radiology (1968-71), before becoming a consultant to the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.[2]
He was a member of theScreenwriters Guild.[5]
Keel is considered "one of ufology's most widely-read and influential authors". As a researcher he was both original and controversial.[1]
Richard Hatem, the screenwriter for The Mothman Prophecies, has described Keel as theHunter S. Thompson of paranormal writers.[8]
Keel invented the termmen in black in an article for themen's adventure magazineSaga published 1967.[1][9]
Like contemporary 1960s researchers such asJ. Allen Hynek andJacques Vallée, Keel was initially hopeful that he could somehow validate the prevailing extraterrestrial visitation hypothesis. However, after a year of investigations, Keel concluded that the extraterrestrial hypothesis was untenable. Indeed, both Hynek and Vallée eventually had a similar conclusion. As Keel himself wrote:
In his booksUFOs: Operation Trojan Horse andThe Eighth Tower Keel argues that a non-human or spiritual intelligence source has staged whole events during a long period of time in order to propagate and reinforce certain erroneous belief systems. For example,monsters,ghosts anddemons, thefairy faith of Middle Europe,vampire legends,mystery airships in 1897, mystery aeroplanes of the 1930s, mystery helicopters, anomalous creature sightings,poltergeist phenomena, spheres of light, andunidentified flying objects; Keel conjectured that ultimately all of these anomalies are a cover for the real phenomenon.[full citation needed] He used the term "ultraterrestrials" to describe UFO occupants he believed to be non-human entities capable of assuming whatever form they desire.[10]
InOur Haunted Planet, Keel discussed the seldom-considered possibility that the alien "visitors" to Earth are not visitors at all, but an advanced Earth civilization, which may or may not be human.Interdimensional life is also considered.[citation needed]
Keel did not state any hypothesis about the ultimate purpose of the phenomenon other than that the UFO intelligence seems to have a long-standing interest in interacting with the human race.[11]
The Mothman Prophecies (1975) is Keel's account of investigating an alleged sighting in and aroundPoint Pleasant,West Virginia of a huge, winged creature termedMothman. The name "Mothman" was invented by a newspaper subeditor.[1]
The book was widely popularized as the basis of a2002 movie of the same title featuringRichard Gere,Will Patton,Laura Linney andAlan Bates.[12] Gere and Bates played two parts of Keel's personality. Bates's character is named "Leek," which is "Keel" spelled backwards. Gere's newspaper journalist character is named "John Klein," also a play on Keel's name.[citation needed]
Keel was pleased with director Mark Pellington's interpretation of the book:
In the May/June 2002 issue ofSkeptical Inquirer, journalist John C. Sherwood, a former business associate of UFO researcherGray Barker, published an analysis of private letters exchanged by Keel and Barker during the period of Keel's investigation. In the article, "Gray Barker's Book of Bunk," Sherwood reported finding significant differences between what Keel wrote at the time of his investigation and what he wrote in his first book about the Mothman reports, raising questions about the book's accuracy. Sherwood also reported that Keel, who was well known for writing humorous and outrageous letters to friends and associates, would not assist him in clarifying the differences.[14]
Keel's friend Marc Coppola claimed that Keel "could look at people and tell exactly when they were going to die".[15]
He once had a business card that read: John A. Keel, Not an Authority on Anything.[6]
In reprints of his bookJadoo he is described as "a real-life Indiana Jones" by his publisher Barnes and Noble.[16]
Keel resided in an apartment on theUpper West Side ofManhattan for many years. He died on July 3, 2009, in New York City, at the age of 79.[1][6]
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