The U.F.O. Baptism of James Moseley

by Charles Lear

Among the early flying saucer investigators who stumbled their way through the mystery in the late 1940s and early 50s, there were some fascinating characters.  Imagine being able to meet and discuss flying saucers with the likes of Donald E. Keyhoe, Edward J. Ruppelt, Frank Scully, Albert Bender or Gray Barker.  A young man who did was James Moseley, who had more than a passing interest in the subject.  With no prior writing experience or credentials, he convinced the most prominent people in the field to sit with him for interviews for a book he’d set out to write.  He never published the book but found a place for himself in the world of flying saucers and saucerers where he’d remain for the rest of his life.

In 1950, James Moseley was a young man with a trust fund who had just quit Princeton University.  He had enough money that he didn’t have to do anything productive but he quickly became bored with “recreational drinking” and skirt chasing.  According to him, in his 2002 autobiography, “Shockingly Close to the Truth: Confessions of a Grave-Robbing UFOlogist”, he sought a more satisfying way to fill his days and decided on travel and exploration.  He got in contact with a well-known Italian explorer, Attilio Gatti, and paid to tag along with him to Africa.  After his return, he approached an American explorer, Ken Krippine.  Krippine was a regular contributor to Argosy magazine and lectured on his travels as well.

Moseley lived in Fort Lee, New Jersey, and when Krippine came to New York City in 1953, Moseley was able to meet with him.  Krippine quickly realized that he’d found a good thing in Moseley and made use of him as a chauffer and a source of funds.  After becoming aware that he was being used, Moseley made Krippine sign an agreement.  It stated that when it came time to go on his expedition, in this case, Peru, Moseley’s way was paid in full.

    While they were waiting, the idea of collaborating on a book about flying saucers came up.  Moseley recalled that the idea of a book had likely been Krippine’s and the idea that it be about flying saucers was likely his.  He’d had an interest in the subject since 1948, after hearing about Thomas Mantell’s tragic experience from a boy across the street.  He quickly became fascinated and read the books being written about this new and evolving mystery as they came out.  He read books by Donald Keyhoe, Frank Scully and George Adamski.  Those three promoted the idea that flying saucers were from outer space.  An essay that he wrote during this period indicates that while he was open to the idea that we were being visited by creatures from other planets, he was not a converted believer.

The agreement was that Moseley would do the research and Krippine would write the book.  Moseley went through his library and wrote the information about the cases he found most interesting on index cards.  He then arranged them geographically and made plans to travel across the country and interview the witnesses.  Then it occurred to him that he should find out more about the personalities that were becoming known in the field.  These included writers, researchers and members of the many flying saucer clubs that were being newly organized all over the country.

Moseley recalled an article he’d clipped out and stuck in a scrapbook, which was a habit of his.  He remembered that it had concerned an event in 1952 and found it in the book from that year.  In June of that year, a man in Jersey City, August C. Roberts, had taken a picture of a saucer while on Skywatch duty as a member of the Ground Observer Corps.  Moseley got in touch with Roberts and Roberts suggested they meet at the home of his friend, Dominick Lucchesi.  Both men, it turned out, were members of the very first flying saucer organization, the International Flying Saucer Bureau, started by Bridgeport, Connecticut resident, Albert K. Bender.

Moseley was off to a fine start.  He’d managed to stumble upon two key I.F.S.B. members just as Bender was shutting down the bureau.  According to Bender, he’d been threatened by three mysterious men in black suits and told to cease his investigations.   This would be the subject of the classic 1956 book by Gray Barker, “They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers.”  Barker had been I.F.S.B.’s chief investigator and would later become a good friend of Moseley’s.

Roberts and Lucchesi gave Moseley contact information for some of the prominent saucerers of the day and talked about some of the theories concerning the origin and purpose of the saucers.  They also recommended that he read the books of Charles Fort, who wrote about unexplained phenomena in the early 20th century.  Moseley took notes and was becoming well prepared for his cross-country journey.  Before he left, however, he decided to look into some local incidents and that he should meet with Bender.

Moseley contacted people in the area who’d reported sightings and interviewed them. He was particularly impressed with Associated Press reporter, Paul Prett, who’d reported seeing a fast-moving, orange-red disk near his New Jersey home.  After a week of this, Moseley moved beyond being a chronicler and participated in an actual investigation.

On August 20, in New Haven, Connecticut, a fiery object crashed through a 20 gauge metal sign and continued on.  Left behind was trace evidence in the form of a jagged hole and embedded metal fragments.  Roberts had been up there previously and invited Moseley to come along and help him continue his investigation.  They interviewed witnesses and talked to a local investigator, Joseph Barbieri.  Barbieri had taken the damaged section of the sign, removed some of the embedded fragments and sent them to the newly formed, Aerial Phenomena Research Organization to have them analyzed.  A.P.R.O.’s founder, Coral Lorenzen, sent the fragments to a Milwaukee lab and they were identified as copper.  Roberts and Moseley acquired fragments from the sign’s wood support. The results of the analysis Roberts arranged also identified the fragments as copper with the additional detail that it was high grade.

On their way to Connecticut, Roberts had told Moseley more about Bender and Moseley determined to drive to Bridgeport later and talk to Bender himself.  With his “way prepared” by Roberts and Lucchesi, Moseley met with Bender a couple of days later.  He heard Bender’s story about the three men and Bender informed him that there would be an official announcement revealing the truth about flying saucers within the next six months.  Moseley noted that Bender claimed to have been quite frightened but that he, himself, found Bender’s claims “more amusing than terrifying.”  Moseley speculated that Bender’s claim that he’d ceased his operations because of threats.  He felt it may have been a cover story and that Bender had more personal reasons for wanting to disband his organization.

Moseley began his cross-country journey by driving to Washington, D.C.  The first person he called was retired Marine Corps officer, Maj. Donald E. Keyhoe.  Keyhoe had made a big impact with his article, “The Flying Saucers Are Real” published in the January 1950 issue of True magazine.  His book with the same title, put out that same year, was the first to be published on the subject.  They talked on the phone and Keyhoe promised they could meet later that year when he would have more time.  Keyhoe was informative but Moseley got a sense that he was holding back because he viewed him as a rival author.  When they met later, Moseley’s feeling about Keyhoe was confirmed and he saw him as a person who made much out of little in order to sell books.

Moseley then traveled to California and talked with Frank Scully, author of the 1950 book, “Behind the Flying Saucers.”  The book was written around an alleged flying saucer crash.  He reported that a saucer and alien bodies had been recovered from Aztec, New Mexico.  The case had been exposed in 1952 as a hoax perpetrated by two conmen, but Scully stuck by his story.

The next meeting Moseley wrote about was extraordinary.  He managed to interview Albert M. Chop and Edward J. Ruppelt together.  Both had been involved in the 1952 flying saucer sightings over Washington, D.C.  Chop had been the Air Force’s public information officer who handled U.F.O. matters and Ruppelt was head of Project Blue Book from 1951 to 1953.  The men discussed various cases and gave their opinions on Air Force U.F.O. policy.  Ruppelt asserted there was no “planned confusion” and Chop added that there was, instead, “pure stupidity.”  Chop believed that flying saucers were from outer space while Ruppelt did not.  Despite their difference, the two remained friends.

Before leaving California, Moseley looked into the scandal that had broken up Civilian Saucer Investigators, the first group to approach the mystery using rigorous scientific methods. The group had been founded by three techs, who worked in the aircraft industry, after they saw between 30 and 40 saucers flying over Los Angeles.  One of the men, Victor Black, published an article in the October 1952 American Mercury magazine saying the report had been a hoax.  Black stuck to his story while the other two men, Ed J. Sullivan and Werner Eichler, claimed that Black had written the article for money and publicity.  C.S.I. would fold shortly thereafter.

Moseley made his way back east, stopping at various locations, such as Farmington, New Mexico, to talk to witnesses.  He stopped in Independence, Missouri after making an appointment with Harry Truman.  Truman had been in the White House only months before and had been President during the emergence of the flying saucer mystery.  Moseley got right to it and asked him what he thought about flying saucers.  His reply was, “I’ve never seen a purple cow, I never hope to see one.”

Finally, he met with Gray Barker in Clarksburg, West Virginia.  He found Barker to be awkward and melodramatic when it came to the “Bender Mystery.”  He also felt that Barker was holding things back from him as a rival writer.  Despite this, the two ended up becoming life-long friends.

Moseley went on to find a special niche for himself in the U.F.O. community.  He formed a saucer club he called S.A.U.C.E.R.S. with Roberts and Lucchesi.  They brainstormed about what the initials could stand for and came up with, “Saucer and Unexplained Celestial Events Research Society.”  They put out a magazine, Nexus, which would become Saucer News and, finally, Saucer Smear. Moseley was “Supreme Commander” of the group and the editor of the magazine, which he put out until his death in 2012.  The magazine did contain news but the bulk of it was made up of humorous commentary and gossip about the U.F.O. community.  It seems Moseley found that the people looking into the mystery, and the dynamics among them, were often more interesting than the mystery itself.  Given his introduction to the community, it’s easy to see why.