Nov 27 2007
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M.K. Jessup, Paranoia, and “The Case For The UFO”
Morris Ketchum Jessup was an unusual man who authored three books on UFOs, and is still a subject of controversy in some circles. He unwittingly sealed his fate in the history books when he was found dead in his car on April 20, 1959, a hose running from the tailpipe to one of the windows. Most sober writers and friends of Jessup accepted that he had killed himself, but the paranoid wing of the UFO crowd still maintain that he was silenced by shadowy operatives.
Much of this speculation derives from a strange series of events surrounding his most well-known book, The Case For The UFO, published in 1955. Jessup was one of the first writers to examine the ancient astronaut idea, and placed the UFO subject in the context of other strange phenomena. To fans of Charles Fort it was evident that Jessup had taken the earlier author’s ideas and ran with them. A newspaper reporter who reviewed the book remarked “If Fort guffawed, Jessup didn’t hear it.”
Soon after the book was released, Jessup’s publisher forwarded him a packet of letters from someone calling himself both “Carlos Miguel Allende” and “Carl Allen,” who took issue with some of Jessup’s theories about anti-gravity, stating that this had already been achieved by humans, and that there was no need to theorize about strange aliens in their hovering saucers. Punctuated with bizarre misspellings and capitalizations Allende’s letter stated that “..such a form of Levitation has been accomplished as described. It is also a Very commonly observed reaction of certain Metals to Certain Fields surrounding a current…” He signed the letter “Very Disrespectfully Yours, Carl M. Allen.”
Allende described an alleged experiment by the U.S. Navy which made a destroyer invisible while at sea. William Moore followed up on references in Allende’s writing, as well as interviews with Allende himself to co-author The Philadelphia Experiment, published in 1979. Based on more complete information, Moore later remarked that the experiment was apparently an application of a strong magnetic field which was supposed to make a ship resistant (or “invisible”) to magnetic mines and proximity fuses or radar, but which somehow went awry and caused physiological problems for the crew. Some of these effects were apparently permanent, involving heart and brain damage, which the Navy was eager to keep secret, which likely added to the rumors surrounding the event.
Not surprisingly, Moore says that Allende was a very strange and paranoid individual. On a drive through a raging thunderstorm in Colorado, Allende remarked that the lightning flashes they observed were actually government testing of Tesla technology. To Moore and many others though, Allende looked like a crackpot with access to information that no “lone nut” should have had.
In 1956, Jessup was invited to the Office of Naval Research to talk to some junior officers about a copy of Case for the UFO which was mailed to their commanding officer in the late summer of 1955. An unknown individual (who was later identified as Allende) had taken a paperback copy of Jessup’s book and scrawled hundreds of comments in it in three colors of ink. The colors were meant to identify three individuals who were known only as “Mr. A,” “Mr. B,” and “Jemi,” who were supposed to be “gypsies.” These “gypsies” apparently knew all about anti-gravity, the Philadelphia Experiment, and UFOs and took a condescending tone in describing where Jessup had gone wrong.
Disregarding the weird non-sequiturs and strange references, one entry by “Mr. B” regarding Jessup’s efforts puts the UFO subject and public reaction to it in stark terms:
If he does succeed in such evaluation Nobody cares enough to bother believing him for that would require the effort of Courage & The Gaiyar are such cowards and conformists. Even if believed, Nobody would dare say so for that would require action & They will not act in BEHALF OF A BELIEF THAT INTERFERES WITH USUAL LIVING.
Jessup took the time to read through the comments and added a few responses. The officers took these, added the letters received from Allende, and contracted the Varo Manufacturing Company, a small electronics firm in Texas to print the whole thing in a small edition of 25 copies, complete with the annotations in the original colors. Why the Navy would go to such trouble is perplexing, although an introduction by two ONR officers explained: “Because of the importance which we attach to the possibility of discovering clues to the nature of gravity, no possible item, however disreputable from he point of view of classical science, should be overlooked.”
Letter sent to Capt. Ed Ruppelt, former Project Blue Book head from Varo company Chairman to accompany a copy of the annotated Jessup book
Given other references to rumors of anti-gravity research uncovered by authors like Tom Valone and more recently, Nick Cook and Joseph Farrell, perhaps the Navy people were looking into the subject with the same curiosity of other current and former government employees who have heard similar whispers, and this was in 1956.
In the last couple years of his life, Jessup was depressed and actually warned others (like fortean researcher Ivan T. Sanderson) of his impending death, although he did not make it clear whether this was from outside forces or by his own hand. New York radio host “Long John” Nebel received a letter from Jessup shortly before the UFO researcher’s death, which Nebel described as “a straight suicide note.”
Allen/ Allende was later exposed as a drifter and “master leg puller,” according to his parents and brother, who lamented that he had never been able to hold a job, but read voluminously and sent letters home bragging about the controversy that he had caused. Perhaps Allen had read a few things that made him believe in human-engineered anti-gravity, but his references to and addresses of need-to-know personnel, especially in an age where this was very hard to come by, remain a mystery. Allende died of natural causes in 1996.
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November 27th, 2007 at 2:27 pm
Greg:
Cool piece, and very timely re the annotated Bowen Manuscript release too!
November 27th, 2007 at 8:49 pm
Somewhere here in the vaults of the Anomaly Archives we have a spiral bound reprint of this Varo edition with … yep, 3 colored ink annotations.
Need to dig that up and reread it.
SMiles
“The Navy has forgotten more info about UFOs than the Air Force ever knew.”
- Unidentified Ufologist
November 27th, 2007 at 9:15 pm
Nick,
Thanks. Of course, you covered something new!
November 27th, 2007 at 9:16 pm
Miles,
Damn you. I only have a b/w copy. That Navy stuff had bothered me for years. I can’t figure out if it’s interservice rivalry or the real deal. The fact that the Navy has always been so quiet about it makes me wonder.
November 27th, 2007 at 9:40 pm
Guys:
What happened to the original annotated book? Did the Navy keep that, or did they just keep the VARO copies? Did Jessup get it back?
November 27th, 2007 at 10:34 pm
Nick,
I think that Jessup got it back and during his most paranoid phase gave it to Sanderson, asking him to keep it in his home safe. No idea what happened to it after that.
November 27th, 2007 at 11:14 pm
The US Navy has always maintained a policy of keeping its paranormal sightings to itself largely because of fear of ridicule and the need to maintain shipboard discipline. A friend of mine who served in the Navy aboard a tender ship said that UFO/USO sightings were absolutely taboo subjects for a ship’s log entries. He also said that several ships had gathered bad reputations for being haunted and cursed as well.
November 28th, 2007 at 3:55 am
There’s a PDF version of the Varo edition with coloured comments that’s been floating around on the web for a while.
I forget where I downloaded my copy from originally, but I think it’s the same one that’s available from this page:
http://obscurantist.com/texts/varo-edition/
I should perhaps add that there’s a tradition of bad luck associated with possession of the Varo edition. Don’t blame me if your house bursts into flames the minute you download it.
November 28th, 2007 at 11:52 am
I was wondering when this piece of work would be mentioned. It is quite the book. I really got a kick out of the story in there where the town drunkard was abductted and nearly kills his abducters with his toxic breath. It’s no wonder with all the weird stuff that has been witnessed where I live; could, explain why alcohol is used and abused here so much. With all the mining and the underground base(s)in this area, the book is probably more fact then fake. Would be intresting to compare a original copy with the above copy you show the jacket of. Jessup was a good man ahead of is time unfortunately.
November 29th, 2007 at 5:44 pm
Grayalien,
Thanks for the link! Amazing!
November 29th, 2007 at 5:47 pm
sasdave,
Are you referring to this planet or where you live?
The image from the post is a scan of my copy of the first edition hardback dust jacket. The “Varo” edition was apparently from a paperback copy that was mailed to the publisher to be forwarded to Jessup.
December 1st, 2007 at 12:21 pm
Greg;
I was talking about about the area that I live, Vancouver Island. This area has had many sittings of sphere orbs, black triangles, MBlack, weird creatures, sasquatch. We have a american above ground and below ground base; plus, the recent upper level cemented in Deifenbunker base; to which, some believe is linked to the other and the under ground US magnolink underground tunnel system. Theory possibly, if UFO’s don’t exist the tunnel systems probably don’t either.
The copy I have appears to be a recopy, large paperback spiral bound. I think it is at least 30 some years old as I’ve had it for at least 10 years and the friend I got it from had it for at least 20 years and he bought it used for about 25Us dollars, back then.