R.I.P. Mr. UFO

By Charles Lear

This past Memorial Day, May 31, 2021, UFO and paranormal researcher Timothy Green Beckley passed on. He was a colorful character who stood out in a field full of colorful characters, and while he might not have been the most serious of researchers, he was part of a circle of legendary characters from the days of flying saucers that included James Moseley, Gray Barker, and John Keel.

Records of Beckley’s age at the time of his passing range from 65 to 69. According to the IMDb, he was born on March 4, 1952 as Jeremy Stone. In addition to his interest in the paranormal, he was an actor in and producer of soft-core porn/horror movies and was known to fans as “Mr. Creepo.” He wrote and published many books on the paranormal with a definite sensationalized bent and was active in the community up until his death. According to what is believed to be his self-authored bio, “Tim Beckley had so many careers that even his own girlfriend didn’t know what he did for a living… Timothy Green Beckley has been described as the Hunter Thompson of UFOlogy by the editor of UFO magazine Nancy Birnes.” His bio contains the claims that his life was saved by an invisible force at the age of three, he started having out of body experiences at the age of six, he had his first UFO sighting at age ten, and had two more after that in the course of his life.

Beckley grew up listening to The Long John Nebel Show, which started in 1956 and evolved into the first late night talk show devoted to the paranormal. In his later years, Beckley was a repeat guest. He was also a guest on numerous other paranormal television and radio shows including Coast to Coast AM, UFO Hunters, and Weird or What with William Shatner. He had his own podcast, Unraveling the Secrets, and his own youtube channel, Mr. UFO’s Secret Files. Beckley also worked on a podcast with Tim Swartz called Exploring the Bizarre.

Adding to Beckley’s paranormal street cred is the fact that he was on site with Gray Barker investigating the 1966-1967 Mothman sightings in West Virginia. In Chapter 16 of Barker’s 1970 book covering the events, “The Silver Bridge,” Barker describes Beckley coming down from New York with Jim Moseley and two others for a mini Mothman convention, some relaxation, and investigation. Summing up their investigation, Beckley is quoted as saying, “I really didn’t expect to see the creature, but after all, we talked with a lot of people who did see it.”

Those who are students of the Men in Black phenomenon may be familiar with what has been described as a photo of an MIB. What they may not know is the story behind the photo and the fact that Beckley was the photographer.

According to one version of the story from blogger Justin Bamforth, which references Nick Redfern’s 2011 book, “The Real Men in Black,” in 1968, Moseley and Beckley started getting calls from “Mary Robertson, the wife of prominent ufologist and secretary of the National UFO Conference, John (Jack) Robertson.” Over four days, while her husband was at work, Mary noticed a suspicious man keeping watch over their apartment building in Jersey City, New Jersey. He was standing “rigidly” in the doorway of the building next door. He wore a black coat, black suit, black hat, and had wrap around black sunglasses. In addition to the mysterious man, the Robertsons heard strange clicks on their phone and suspected that someone had gone through Jack’s UFO files.

After several calls from Mary, Moseley and Beckley decided to come out and see for themselves. Moseley was driving and Beckley was manning the camera. As they approached the spot, they saw the man Mary had described, and Beckley took a picture of him as well as a picture of a black Cadillac nearby that fit in with he MIB mythos. They drove around the corner to park and when they walked back to the spot, the man and the Cadillac were gone.

In Redfern’s book, Moseley is quoted explaining his thoughts on what they had seen:

The only thing that kind of made sense to me was that he was a look-out for a bookie joint, or some illegal operation. But the point is, to me anyway—not to Tim, I know—it had absolutely nothing to do with the Robertsons or with flying saucers. He might have seen Tim taking his picture out of the car, and if he was doing something illegal that’s why he left.

According to Bamford, during a brief conversation regarding the Cadillac, Beckley agreed that there was no proof that the car belonged to the man, but Bamford notes that “it is a little strange, perhaps coincidental, that neither the man nor the vehicle was there when he and Moseley returned to the scene moments later.”

With Beckley’s passing, UFOlogy has lost one of the last of those researcher/enthusiasts, such as Barker and Moseley, who walked on both sides of the line between researcher and sensationalist entertainer while maintaining a sense of humor. He may not have been the most rigorous of investigators, but he was certainly one of the most enthusiastic.

The author would like to acknowledge Loren Coleman’s obituary of Tim Beckley from which much information was taken with what is hoped to have been a minimum amount of plagiarism.