More JFK Assassination-Related Pics...

And a few more JFK assassination-connected pictures taken this week, while my dad is over here. These were taken at the grave of police officer J.D. Tippit, believed (by some, but not all) to have been shot and killed by Lee Harvey Oswald.

 

 

Creatures for the Kids

Each November, I do a series of lectures for Dallas' Highland Park School District on the Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot, the Chupacabras, the Yeti etc. And every year the teachers have the kids (aged around 7) mail me drawings and letters of the things they liked and learned from the lectures. And above are a few of the latest...

Cornwall's Creepiest Critter...

My latest Creature of the Month article at the blog of New Page Books is on the subject of one of the UK's weirdest winged whatsits of all. It starts like this...

"It is a large, humanoid, flying monster with glowing red eyes and huge, powerful wings. It strikes fear into the very heart of all those that encounter it. It’s the infamous Mothman of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, right? Nope, wrong. Although it is just about the closest thing that Britain has to the bizarre beast made famous in John Keel’s now-classic book, The Mothman Prophecies. Its name is the Owlman."

The Chaos Conundrum: Reviewed

My latest Mysterious Universe article...

"Aaron Gulyas’ new book, The Chaos Conundrum, is a thoughtful, and thought-provoking, compilation of papers on a wide variety of paranormal phenomena. Or, as it’s collectively known in circles where the unusual is typically the usual: profoundly weird stuff. A cursory glance at the titles of the essays, and their attendant subject matters, might make some readers assume they are stand-alone pieces with no connecting or unifying parts. Well, those souls would be wrong. Actually, they would be dead wrong.

"The connection is not so much the issues and topics that Gulyas places under his supernatural microscope. Rather, it is the fact that the essays all invite us to do one thing: address and consider alternative theories, paradigms, and ideas to those that the established figures of the paranormal would prefer we adhere to."

Oswald's Grave...

 

 

Just got back from taking my dad to see the grave of Lee Harvey Oswald, which is only about 15 minutes drive from where I live.

 

I was surprised to see it covered in flowers - which, depending on who you think really shot JFK, is either a good thing or a bad thing!

 

Here's a few pictures.

 

Note the grave next to Oswald marked "Nick Beef."

 

There is an interesting story behind that which you can find online.

 

Just search on "Nick Beef Gravestone" and you will find it.

 

The interesting thing is that there is no-one buried there...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Weekend of the JFK Assassination...

 

 

Well, as my dad came over Thursday night for a 2-week holiday (after a 6-hour delay at Newark, which meant we finally got back to my place at 3AM Friday morning, instead of around 9PM Thursday night!), he arrived right at the time of the 50th anniversary of the JFK assassination.

 

So, on Saturday, we went to the "Arlington Conference 50th Anniversary Conference," the main focus of which was Judyth Vary Baker's book, Me and Lee: How I came to know, love and lose Lee Harvey Oswald.

 

 

 

Here are a few pictures from the day - one of Judyth, one of her book, and one with me and co-organizer and radio-host, Popeye Jefferson.

 

 

A UFO Evacuation...

My latest Mysterious Universe article delves into an aspect of the famous UFO event (or events) at Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk, England in December 1980 that really needs to be investigated to a deeper level. Namely, that at some point during the events, the British Government was planning on evacuating a nearby prison.

Here's the link...

The Chaos Conundrum

The Chaos Conundrum - written by Aaron Gulyas - is a new book for which I have penned the foreword. It's a book I definitely recommend too, as it's definitively refreshing, original, alternative, outside of the box, and guaranteed to get up the collective noses of the closed-minded and the stuck-in-the-mud crowd - which are all very good reasons to buy it!

UFOs, Crop Circles, Exopolitics, Roswell, ghosts, conspiracies (and conspiracy-theorists) and much more all appear in The Chaos Conundrum.

And here's the blurb for the book (published by Paul Kimball's Redstar Books):

"In The Chaos Conundrum, historian Aaron John Gulyas examines how the paranormal has intersected and influenced our culture in myriad ways, from the conspiracy beliefs of William Cooper and Exopolitics to the challenge that the stories of Gray Barker presented to our concept of self and time. He looks at the maelstrom of personalities, agendas, impressions, data, confusion, and contradictions that can be found in the world of the weird, and demonstrates how they have become an integral part of our lives, whether in the form of flying saucers, hauntings, religious revelations, psychic abilities, or dozens of other guises. Gulyas delves into the stories of the people who have attempted to create order out of the chaos. Along the way he recounts his own journey from enthusiastic believer in the 'shadow government' and their underground bases to jaded academic skeptic, and then finally to someone who thinks there might just be something to the paranormal after all...but not what we have been led to expect or believe!"

A review will appear here soon...

Winged Monsters: The Dark Side

There's a new Mysterious Universe article from me, which begins...

"For my first article of this week, I thought I would do something a bit different: namely a review of a lecture I attended just this past weekend. It was given by good friend and fellow seeker of strange creatures, Ken Gerhard. Ken drove up to the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas area early Sunday morning – from his San Antonio home – to speak at the monthly meeting of a local group, EPIC, the Extraordinary Phenomena Investigations Council.

"The subject of Ken’s lecture was his latest book, Encounters with Flying Humanoids, which as its title suggests, is an in-depth study of a wide and varied range of bizarre, winged, human-like  creatures – with Mothman being, without any doubt, the most famous example. I reviewed Ken’s book here a couple of months ago, but there’s another reason I want to highlight it today. And that is – and as Ken spelled out time and again in his illustrated presentation on Sunday - the many and disturbing occasions upon which encounters with winged humanoids have seemingly provoked immediate (and sometimes lasting) bouts of ill-health or disaster. Or even both at the same time."

And, with that said, read on...

Forbidden Bigfoot: Just Published

Some time ago, I was interviewed by author Lisa A. Shiel for her new book, Forbidden Bigfoot. Well, it's now available and, if like me, you're into the stranger and more paranormally-themed aspects of the Bigfoot phenomenon, you should definitely pick up a copy!

It's a controversial subject-matter, but - what the hell - there's nothing wrong with controversy!

Here's the publisher's info on Forbidden Bigfoot:

"Mysterious footprints. Eerie screams. For centuries, if not longer, stunned witnesses have reported face-to-face encounters with the bizarre beasts responsible for mystifying us with the tantalizing evidence they leave behind. Countless books and documentaries have offered up the same explanation, that Bigfoot are nothing more than large, bipedal apes that mainstream science has yet to accept as real. But is this the truth, or merely disinformation?

"Now, Lisa A. Shiel--author of the acclaimed Backyard Bigfoot--presents the uncensored facts about Bigfoot in a meticulously researched, no-holds-barred exploration of the phenomenon. Forbidden Bigfoot exposes the startling connections between Sasquatch and other unexplained phenomena, from UFOs and fairies to stick signs and crop-circle-like formations. Shiel strips away the hype about claims of Bigfoot DNA evidence, touted as the ultimate proof, and explores what genetics and the fossil record can really tell us about these elusive creatures."

Wild Wallabies in the UK

That's the strange subject of my latest Mysterious Universe article, which you can find right here...

JFK, UFOs & Penthouse

The new issue of Penthouse magazine includes a 4-page article from me on the JFK assassination (which has it's 50th anniversary next week). The article is written in a "top 10 theories"-style, with those theories ranging from the Russians to the Cubans, Oswald to a secret government group with UFO links, and to much more. And, as it's Penthouse, if you don't like the article, there's always the pictures :)

A Puerto Rican Monster (Not the Chupacabras)

My latest Mysterious Universe article is on a subject we get to hear very little about, Bigfoot in Puerto Rico...

 

(A couple of photos from my trips to Puerto Rico...)

A Monstrous Reboot...

My latest Mysterious Universe article, which begins...

"If there is one thing that can be said with a high degree of accuracy when it comes to the matter of Cryptozoology, it’s that certain types of unknown creature are seen time and again, regardless of location. They are: (a) large anomalous cats; (b) oversized hounds with paranormal overtones; (c) huge, winged creatures; (d) lake-monsters; and (e) unidentified ape-like animals.  But why should such a small, and clearly delineated, body of archetypes dominate the field of Cryptozoology? Read on…

"Some time ago I did an interview with Jon Downes, of the Center for Fortean Zoology, on the matter of this very question. Jon related to me an utterly fascinating theory that he and the CFZ’s Richard Freeman have developed. Since, in my view at least, Jon’s words are of profound importance, I’m going to turn matters over to him."

UFOs: Paranormal Possession

There's a new Mysterious Universe article from me, and here's how it starts:

"When it comes to the matter of who, or what, the dreaded Men in Black may be, the list of possibilities is just about as long as it is controversial. Indeed, the widely (and wildly!) varying theories include aliens, government agents, time-travelers, and dimension-hoppers. There is, however, another theory, one which hardly ever gets any serious consideration. In fact, it’s probably a theory that scarcely ever crosses the minds of most people – even those within the field of Ufology. What might it be? Read on…

"What if the MIB are not extraterrestrials, time-surfers from the distant future, agents of officialdom, or inter-dimensional creatures? What if, incredibly, they are normal, every day people, just like me and you? Or, to put it more correctly, what if they are every day people most of the time? Could it be the case that the MIB are regular individuals who, now and again, become possessed by a paranormal force – a demonic force, some might even suggest - that uses those poor souls as vessels to perform tasks of the terrifying kind?"

A Werewolf Q&A

Over at OnMilwaukee.com, there's a new profile on Linda Godfrey (author of such excellent books as Hunting the American Werewolf and The Michigan Dogman).

It's a profile that begins as follows...

"Wisconsin author Linda S. Godfrey didn’t set out to become a leading expert in the manwolf' phenomenon, she just kind of fell into one cold winter in 1991.

"'I call myself the accidental werewolf chronicler because it was nothing that I thought of in my previous life as a career I might someday have,' Godfrey recently told me over the phone.

"She lives in the 'quiet, conservative community' of Elkhorn. In the early '90s, she got a staff job as a writer and illustrator at the Walworth County newspaper The Week and soon received a strange tip."

And here's the rest of the story, including what happened after that "strange tip" came Linda's way...
  

Woolpit's Wild Children

My latest Mysterious Universe article is on the very strange (and ancient) saga of the wild children of Woolpit, England...

A Change Is Coming...

Next year, I will have several new books released, which will bring the number of titles I have had published to thirty. And, as a result, and particularly over the course of the last few months, I have been doing some thinking about what the future will bring in terms of my book-writing. Well, the main thing it's going to bring is a radical change. And here's what I mean by that:

Of those thirty books, approximately twenty or so are UFO-themed, one way or another. And all of those twenty (plus my cryptozoological book, Monster Files) are based around conspiracies, cover-ups, government files, and official records.

Well, there is something I have been giving much thought to and it's this: having written so many books with conspiracy-based themes, I honestly think I have reached the point where I have written just about all I want to on conspiracies.

I would stress (in fact, I cannot stress this enough!) it's not at all a case of burn-out. And no, I have not been threatened by the Men in Black, or silenced by "them"!

Rather, I really do feel that I have pretty much covered all of the many and various conspiracies that personally interest me (and having an interest is my only motivation when it comes to writing about them). And that has been a lot, to say the least. The long list includes: Roswell, Area 51, the Face on Mars, the Moon-landings, government files, the JFK assassination, secret bases, missing files, mysterious deaths in Ufology, and...well the list goes on...and on...and on...and...

So, rather than be forced into in a position of writing conspiracy-themed books purely for the sake of it, or because it's expected of me, I'm going to shift gears a bit. As I said, I do have a couple of UFO-themed conspiracy books coming out in 2014 (such as Close Encounters of the Fatal Kind for New Page Books, and which, even though I say so myself, is a bloody good one!). But, that's it. Post-2014, no more.

I would stress that this decision to move - totally - away from the realm of conspiracies won't mean I'll be writing books any less. Certainly, I'll still be writing on UFOs and Cryptozoology as much as ever - as there are plenty of aspects of both phenomena worthy of treatment that have nothing to do with conspiracies at all.

Plus, I would like to get into paranormal areas of writing (but not ghosts, which don't really interest me), and things like ancient myths, folklore, legends, etc., - which do interest me a lot.

But, the last thing I want to do is write about an angle of the unknown (the conspiracy angle) that, for me anyway, I have now covered to the extent that I want to or am interested in doing.

So, I view things like this: I have a solid body of conspiracy-based writing behind me, and which now (after thirty books) covers pretty much all I am interested in (or enthusiastic about) saying on the subject.

Again, there is no hidden motive, no MIB lurking around, no exhaustion, no disillusionment, etc. Rather, I simply want to remain fresh and not finish up like some band peddling its old hits over and over again.

Look at it from my perspective: twenty or so conspiracy-themed books in less than twenty years is a lot. And I have now done what I want to do in that field, I have made up my mind, and nothing will change that.

So for me, I don't - at all - view this as "the end." In fact, the exact opposite. Yes, at some point in 2014 I will indeed bow out of conspiracy-based writing and move onto other aspects of the paranormal that interest me greatly, but which - until now - I have had little time to investigate or write about.

But change can be a good thing.

In Search of the Thylacine

 

There's a new post from me at Mysterious Universe on the always controversial issue of whether or not the thylacine still lives. It starts  like this...

"From Australia’s Courier Mail newspaper… 'An international team of naturalists from the Centre for Fortean Zoology has arrived in Tasmania for the first in a series of well-resourced and professional expeditions into Tasmania’s wilderness to hunt for evidence of the Tasmanian tiger. Although the animal was officially declared extinct in the 1980s, reports of thylacine sightings are still common and expedition leader Mike Williams from NSW has high hopes that they can find something. 'The problem with a lot of the sightings from members of the public is that they’re generally caught by surprise, and their photos are taken on things like mobile phones and aren’t very good,’ he said.

"If the Center for Fortean Zoology’s expedition does indeed uncover evidence that the thylacine really is still with us (albeit with us in an incredibly stealthy fashion!), it would be amazing news. After all, not only is the creature widely believed to have become extinct way back in the 1930s, but it was a truly weird-looking animal, too. On top of that, I’m pretty sure that such a discovery would prove to be a major step in encouraging quests to uncover additional, presumed-extinct beasts, too, as well as the definitive unknowns, such as Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster."

A "Nobody's" Q&A

Over at The Examiner, there's a new Q&A with me, on my latest book, For Nobody's Eyes Only. You can find it right here...

Creepy Dog-Headed Invaders...

Over at her blog, Linda Godfrey has an intriguing post on "canine-headed," bipedal creatures. It begins as follows...

"Since it’s Halloween, I thought I’d share an example from the spookier side of the reports I receive. As I often note, the great majority of creatures described by eyewitnesses feature unusual but not necessarily supernatural behavior — mostly walking or running on two legs. There’s a small but steady minority of reports, however, that describe something I call the 'house or bedroom invaders.' These involve creatures that appear inexplicably inside people’s homes. In my opinion they are not at all the same things that others report jumping from cornfields or snarling on nature trails. Their descriptions detail a taller creature that seems more humanoid in form and is utterly black in color."

And here's the complete article...

UK Wallaby Captured

Thanks to Kithra for keeping me informed of the saga of the latest "out of place" wallaby in the UK, which has now been captured...