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The Randle Report: UFOs in the '90s
It's strange; it's real; it's out there. Is UFO investigation a worthwhile activity? Can even more be learned from pursuing data on the older cases like Roswell? Was Shag Harbour, Nova Scotia, the site of an authentic UFO crash in 1967? Was it accurately documented by the Canadian government? And what about the photographs of aliens published in Penthouse that Bob Guccione swore were real?
Introduction: The Randle Report -- Positive or Negative --
1. Shag Harbour Crash -- 1967 --
2. Travis Walton and Alien Abductions -- 1975 --
3. MJ-12 Again? -- 1984 --
4. The Gulf Breeze Photographs -- 1987 --
5. STS-48: Discovery and UFOs -- 1991 --
6. The Air Force Final Report on Roswell -- 1994 --
7. The Alien Autopsy Circus -- 1995 --
8. The Chupacabras -- 1995 --
9. Did the Brazilians Capture UFO Occupants? -- 1996 --
10. The Roswell Alien Photos -- 1996 --
11. Jim Ragsdale Revisited -- 1996 --
12. The Decline and Fall of Roswell -- 1996 --
13. The Roswell Phoenix --
14. Conclusions -- 1996
Introduction: The Randle Report -- Positive or Negative --
1. Shag Harbour Crash -- 1967 --
2. Travis Walton and Alien Abductions -- 1975 --
3. MJ-12 Again? -- 1984 --
4. The Gulf Breeze Photographs -- 1987 --
5. STS-48: Discovery and UFOs -- 1991 --
6. The Air Force Final Report on Roswell -- 1994 --
7. The Alien Autopsy Circus -- 1995 --
8. The Chupacabras -- 1995 --
9. Did the Brazilians Capture UFO Occupants? -- 1996 --
10. The Roswell Alien Photos -- 1996 --
11. Jim Ragsdale Revisited -- 1996 --
12. The Decline and Fall of Roswell -- 1996 --
13. The Roswell Phoenix --
14. Conclusions -- 1996
256 pages, Hardcover
First published May 25, 1997
About the author
Kevin D. Randle
147 books30 followersUfologist and historic fiction & science fiction writer.
Within the UFO community he is often regarded as one of the preeminent experts on the reported crash of a UFO near Roswell, New Mexico in July 1947.
A professional writer with more than 80 books to his credit, Randle is perhaps best known for his books about UFOs and the Roswell story.
Within the UFO community he is often regarded as one of the preeminent experts on the reported crash of a UFO near Roswell, New Mexico in July 1947.
A professional writer with more than 80 books to his credit, Randle is perhaps best known for his books about UFOs and the Roswell story.
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May 21, 2024
RANDLE GOES OVER ‘OLD’ CASES, AND ‘NEW’ ONES---OFTEN SKEPTICALLY
Kevin Douglas Randle (born 1949) is a prominent ufologist and author of science fiction, and a veteran of both the Vietnam War (Army), and the Iraq War (Iowa National Guard), as well as being a retired Captain of the U.S. Air Force.
He wrote in the Introduction to this 1997 book, “In [his 1989 book] ‘The UFO Casebook’… [I] predicted that UFO research would find itself … looking at old cases, trying to learn if there as something more to them. Were the facts as they had been reported… as they had been observed by the witnesses? Was there more that could be learned by a reinvestigation of those older, but now classic cases? Was UFO investigation still a worthwhile activity? The answer here is ‘Yes!’ And that’s what we’re going to look at in this book. Those old cases that deserve more attention, and the many new cases that will someday join the ranks of the classics. What we see… is an increase in the capability of the investigator. No longer do we have amateurs who have no clue as to how to proceed, Instead, we have talented researchers who are leaving no stone unturned in their quest for the truth.” (Pg. ix-x)
He continues, “I make no apologies for the negative aspects reported here. It is the truth as I have been able to learn it. I have attempted to provide all the relative data; how it was gathered, and sources of that data, and how it can be verified for those who wish to do so themselves. I have tried to paint an honest picture of the UFO phenomenon as it exists today. I have tried to provide all the information that can be found. And I have tried to suggest ways for those who have neither the time nor the resources to venture thousands of miles from home to continue to investigate themselves.” (Pg. xii)
Of the Travis Walton case, he notes that polygrapher John McCarthy “met with Walton and spent about two hours with him, telling him about the procedures that would be followed, and reviewing the questions to make sure that they could be answered yes or no. McCarthy completed the tests and was unambiguous in his conclusions. ‘Gross deception.’ He also reported then, as we would later, that he believed Walton has resorted to tricks in an attempt to beat the machine.” (Pg. 20)
He notes, “I asked the sheriff’s deputy on the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department about polygraphs given twenty years after the event. His opinion was that if you had a story that had been shared with the public during that time, that had been told over and over, in front of television and live audiences, that had been written about and made into a film, the test might not be one hundred percent accurate. The tellers of the tale have become so comfortable with that tale that the stress reactions do not manifest themselves.” (Pg. 28)
He adds, “There is one final point to be made, and that is the amazing coincidence between the Walton case and the abduction of Barney and Betty Hill in 1961. A movie about that case, ‘The UFO Incident’ was broadcast by NBC to a national audience in late October 1975. Walton said that he didn’t see it at that time. Mike Rogers admitted that he began to watch it but quickly lost interest. The coincidence, then, is that about two weeks after the movie was aired, Walton disappeared in his own abduction.” (Pg. 29)
He says of one of the MJ-12 documents, “The point is that Hillenkoetter wasn’t an admiral for a rear admiral, which means that he wore two stars instead of four. We are talking about a document that, according to all the parties involved in the debate, was created by Hillenkoetter. This is not a question of a mixed list of names, but, a notation at the top of the document. Hillenkoetter, knowing that Eisenhower, one of the handful of men to reach five-star rank, would be seeing this document, would not allow it to go forward with the wrong rank on it.” (Pg. 35)
He recounts, “Joe Nickell (who is now one of the leaders of the Committed for Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal) and John F. Fischer… two researchers who looked to see if the errors in the Eisenhower briefing and the Truman memo were repeated in other documents so that they could draw a reasonable conclusion. What they found was that the mistakes in the MJ-12 documents were unique to those documents and that suggests they are fraudulent. [Stanton] Friedman, in his various responses, doesn’t attempt to refute the data. Instead, he suggests that we ignore it because it comes from men associated tie CSICOP. But, as we look at the data, if it has been corroborated and verified, there is no reason to reject it. So, what we’re left with is information that suggests the mistakes in the MJ-12 document are of sufficient importance to lead us to the conclusion that MJ-12 is a hoax…” (Pg. 36-37)
Later, he notes, “Of the Truman memo, William Moore and Jaime Shandera] write, ‘As for the document as a whole, it is either authentic or a well done and very probably official fabrication. We give a value of 35-40% for the former possibility, and 60-65% for the latter.’ … So even Moore and Shandera, two of the leading proponents of MJ-12 have serious doubts about the authenticity of the various MJ-12 documents, concluding that is it more likely that the Truman memo, for example, is a fake than that it is genuine.” (Pg. 52)
Of Ed Walters and the Gulf Breeze photos, he points out, “Within days of taking the first photographs, Walters was at the offices of the newspapers with his pictures… If Walters was serious about keeping away from the publicity, then he shouldn’t have gone to the newspaper in the first place… there was a financial reward for the case… William Morrow and Company paid $200,000 as an advance for the book about the sightings, and a production company paid an additional $100,000… for the miniseries rights. In other words… there was a huge financial reward because of the sightings and photographs. The first book was followed by a second, which increased the financial rewards.” (Pg. 64)
Of analysis of the Gulf Breeze photos, he recounts, “The best of the various independent analyses was completed by William G. Hyzer… Their investigation of Photogarph No. 19 revealed ‘There was no UFO present and the photo is a product of multiple exposure techniques.’ … ‘It is this author’s professional opinion that… if the UFO-like object in the photograph number 19 had been real, reflections of luminous sources associated with the dome and dome light at the top of the object would have to be visible in the truck’s hood: but they are not.’” (Pg. 78-79)
Of the Roswell case and the Air Force’s explanation of it, he argues, “the case is not nearly as strong as the Air Force would have us believe. The links to Mogus are very weak and the Air Force investigators were unable to discover any documents that would prove their point. In the end, it is speculation based on a limited review of the evidence available. For the Project Mogul explanation to work, we must believe that Major [Jesse] Marcel was unable to identify a common type of balloon… We must accept the idea that [Lt. Col. Sheridan] Cavitt did recognize the balloon but said nothing to .. Marcel … or anyone else.” (Pg. 95)
Of the ‘Alien Autopsy’ film, he observes, “The big, dark eyes, the shape of the body including the large, protruding stomach; and the stockiness of limbs seemed to argue against the body being from the Roswell crash… Russ Estes commented that it looked more like a dressed set than an actual autopsy room… There were no channels on it to drain body fluids. It seemed to be a standard table, not one used in autopsies.” (Pg. 107)
He also notes caustically, “Stanton Friedman… continues to defend the testimony of Gerald Anderson, a man who admitted to lying about aspects of his claimed involvement in the Roswell case, who has admitted to forging a number of documents about the case, and whose testimony is nearly universally rejected.” (Pg. 175)
He says of the Air Force work on Roswell, “The Air Force has been working very hard to discredit the case. I confess that I’m at a loss to understand why they are so concerned with what a bunch of UFO nuts believe. Why do they care enough to spend taxpayer dollars to continue their research? I don’t know the answer to that. I just know that more tax money is being spent on something the Air Force claims was a weather balloon and radar reflector.” (Pg. 179) Later, he asks, “if Roswell is not the scene of a flying saucer crash in 1947, why is the Air Force working so hard to convince us that it isn’t? Why should they care? What is hidden at Roswell that causes them to want to divert out attention?” (Pg. 194)
This book will be of great interest to those studying UFOs and related phenomena.
Kevin Douglas Randle (born 1949) is a prominent ufologist and author of science fiction, and a veteran of both the Vietnam War (Army), and the Iraq War (Iowa National Guard), as well as being a retired Captain of the U.S. Air Force.
He wrote in the Introduction to this 1997 book, “In [his 1989 book] ‘The UFO Casebook’… [I] predicted that UFO research would find itself … looking at old cases, trying to learn if there as something more to them. Were the facts as they had been reported… as they had been observed by the witnesses? Was there more that could be learned by a reinvestigation of those older, but now classic cases? Was UFO investigation still a worthwhile activity? The answer here is ‘Yes!’ And that’s what we’re going to look at in this book. Those old cases that deserve more attention, and the many new cases that will someday join the ranks of the classics. What we see… is an increase in the capability of the investigator. No longer do we have amateurs who have no clue as to how to proceed, Instead, we have talented researchers who are leaving no stone unturned in their quest for the truth.” (Pg. ix-x)
He continues, “I make no apologies for the negative aspects reported here. It is the truth as I have been able to learn it. I have attempted to provide all the relative data; how it was gathered, and sources of that data, and how it can be verified for those who wish to do so themselves. I have tried to paint an honest picture of the UFO phenomenon as it exists today. I have tried to provide all the information that can be found. And I have tried to suggest ways for those who have neither the time nor the resources to venture thousands of miles from home to continue to investigate themselves.” (Pg. xii)
Of the Travis Walton case, he notes that polygrapher John McCarthy “met with Walton and spent about two hours with him, telling him about the procedures that would be followed, and reviewing the questions to make sure that they could be answered yes or no. McCarthy completed the tests and was unambiguous in his conclusions. ‘Gross deception.’ He also reported then, as we would later, that he believed Walton has resorted to tricks in an attempt to beat the machine.” (Pg. 20)
He notes, “I asked the sheriff’s deputy on the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department about polygraphs given twenty years after the event. His opinion was that if you had a story that had been shared with the public during that time, that had been told over and over, in front of television and live audiences, that had been written about and made into a film, the test might not be one hundred percent accurate. The tellers of the tale have become so comfortable with that tale that the stress reactions do not manifest themselves.” (Pg. 28)
He adds, “There is one final point to be made, and that is the amazing coincidence between the Walton case and the abduction of Barney and Betty Hill in 1961. A movie about that case, ‘The UFO Incident’ was broadcast by NBC to a national audience in late October 1975. Walton said that he didn’t see it at that time. Mike Rogers admitted that he began to watch it but quickly lost interest. The coincidence, then, is that about two weeks after the movie was aired, Walton disappeared in his own abduction.” (Pg. 29)
He says of one of the MJ-12 documents, “The point is that Hillenkoetter wasn’t an admiral for a rear admiral, which means that he wore two stars instead of four. We are talking about a document that, according to all the parties involved in the debate, was created by Hillenkoetter. This is not a question of a mixed list of names, but, a notation at the top of the document. Hillenkoetter, knowing that Eisenhower, one of the handful of men to reach five-star rank, would be seeing this document, would not allow it to go forward with the wrong rank on it.” (Pg. 35)
He recounts, “Joe Nickell (who is now one of the leaders of the Committed for Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal) and John F. Fischer… two researchers who looked to see if the errors in the Eisenhower briefing and the Truman memo were repeated in other documents so that they could draw a reasonable conclusion. What they found was that the mistakes in the MJ-12 documents were unique to those documents and that suggests they are fraudulent. [Stanton] Friedman, in his various responses, doesn’t attempt to refute the data. Instead, he suggests that we ignore it because it comes from men associated tie CSICOP. But, as we look at the data, if it has been corroborated and verified, there is no reason to reject it. So, what we’re left with is information that suggests the mistakes in the MJ-12 document are of sufficient importance to lead us to the conclusion that MJ-12 is a hoax…” (Pg. 36-37)
Later, he notes, “Of the Truman memo, William Moore and Jaime Shandera] write, ‘As for the document as a whole, it is either authentic or a well done and very probably official fabrication. We give a value of 35-40% for the former possibility, and 60-65% for the latter.’ … So even Moore and Shandera, two of the leading proponents of MJ-12 have serious doubts about the authenticity of the various MJ-12 documents, concluding that is it more likely that the Truman memo, for example, is a fake than that it is genuine.” (Pg. 52)
Of Ed Walters and the Gulf Breeze photos, he points out, “Within days of taking the first photographs, Walters was at the offices of the newspapers with his pictures… If Walters was serious about keeping away from the publicity, then he shouldn’t have gone to the newspaper in the first place… there was a financial reward for the case… William Morrow and Company paid $200,000 as an advance for the book about the sightings, and a production company paid an additional $100,000… for the miniseries rights. In other words… there was a huge financial reward because of the sightings and photographs. The first book was followed by a second, which increased the financial rewards.” (Pg. 64)
Of analysis of the Gulf Breeze photos, he recounts, “The best of the various independent analyses was completed by William G. Hyzer… Their investigation of Photogarph No. 19 revealed ‘There was no UFO present and the photo is a product of multiple exposure techniques.’ … ‘It is this author’s professional opinion that… if the UFO-like object in the photograph number 19 had been real, reflections of luminous sources associated with the dome and dome light at the top of the object would have to be visible in the truck’s hood: but they are not.’” (Pg. 78-79)
Of the Roswell case and the Air Force’s explanation of it, he argues, “the case is not nearly as strong as the Air Force would have us believe. The links to Mogus are very weak and the Air Force investigators were unable to discover any documents that would prove their point. In the end, it is speculation based on a limited review of the evidence available. For the Project Mogul explanation to work, we must believe that Major [Jesse] Marcel was unable to identify a common type of balloon… We must accept the idea that [Lt. Col. Sheridan] Cavitt did recognize the balloon but said nothing to .. Marcel … or anyone else.” (Pg. 95)
Of the ‘Alien Autopsy’ film, he observes, “The big, dark eyes, the shape of the body including the large, protruding stomach; and the stockiness of limbs seemed to argue against the body being from the Roswell crash… Russ Estes commented that it looked more like a dressed set than an actual autopsy room… There were no channels on it to drain body fluids. It seemed to be a standard table, not one used in autopsies.” (Pg. 107)
He also notes caustically, “Stanton Friedman… continues to defend the testimony of Gerald Anderson, a man who admitted to lying about aspects of his claimed involvement in the Roswell case, who has admitted to forging a number of documents about the case, and whose testimony is nearly universally rejected.” (Pg. 175)
He says of the Air Force work on Roswell, “The Air Force has been working very hard to discredit the case. I confess that I’m at a loss to understand why they are so concerned with what a bunch of UFO nuts believe. Why do they care enough to spend taxpayer dollars to continue their research? I don’t know the answer to that. I just know that more tax money is being spent on something the Air Force claims was a weather balloon and radar reflector.” (Pg. 179) Later, he asks, “if Roswell is not the scene of a flying saucer crash in 1947, why is the Air Force working so hard to convince us that it isn’t? Why should they care? What is hidden at Roswell that causes them to want to divert out attention?” (Pg. 194)
This book will be of great interest to those studying UFOs and related phenomena.
April 8, 2016
I bought this book at a San Francisco resale shop with the idea of giving it to one of my California hosts--but not until I read it first.
Randle is a long-time UFOlogist. This book consists of a series of essays reconsidering UFO cases. Although Randle buys into a Roswell-as-alien-crash hypothesis (about which he knows quite a lot, much of which he uncovered himself), he does not accept a number of other classic cases for reasons detailed herein. This critical approach, while deflating some of my favorite conceits (I liked the Travis Walton story), is to be commended.
Readers unfamiliar with UFO literature are not advised to begin their studies with this volume.
Randle is a long-time UFOlogist. This book consists of a series of essays reconsidering UFO cases. Although Randle buys into a Roswell-as-alien-crash hypothesis (about which he knows quite a lot, much of which he uncovered himself), he does not accept a number of other classic cases for reasons detailed herein. This critical approach, while deflating some of my favorite conceits (I liked the Travis Walton story), is to be commended.
Readers unfamiliar with UFO literature are not advised to begin their studies with this volume.
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