Friday, September 24, 2010

William Cooper and Behold a Pail of Horse...

In the last few days I have had a number of people ask about or talk about the UFO research of Bill Cooper. He claimed that he had been part of a secret Navy briefing team and that he had inside information about how some of these clandestine organizations work. Eventually he wrote a book called Behold a Pale Horse, which some have embraced. Cooper was killed a number of years ago in a shoot out with Arizona sheriff’s deputies when he pulled a pistol on them.

Normally I would just ignore this because I found nothing in Cooper’s work worth repeating and found some of his conclusions to be flawed. He made leaps of logic, embraced the almost discredited MJ-12 documents, and rode off on many conspiracy tangents. He was as crazy as they come. (I was going to say as crazy as a bedbug, but with the all the talk in the media about them, I thought I’d just stay away from that).


As just a single example of this craziness, Cooper believed that the real assassin of President Kennedy was the limousine driver. In Dealy Plaza, where there were, literally, hundreds of witnesses, Cooper said the driver turned in his seat and shot the president (Me at the precise location that Zapruter stood, the school depository and the famous grassy knoll). He said that if you watched the Zapruter film of the assassination carefully, you could see it happen.

I have and I didn’t.

It was also means that everyone else in the car was in on it or the driver would have had to shoot them all. If he didn’t, what motive would they have for remaining quiet once they were out of the car. This is a ridiculous notion, but one that Cooper held.

Almost everything he claimed about his military career was distorted. Oh, he served in the Navy but he was a low-ranking enlisted man. He did seem to have participated on a couple of briefing teams for high-ranking officials, but his role might have been little more than making sure the projectors worked, the ashtrays were empty and the room cleaned when the conference was over. He wasn’t brought in to talk about UFOs or other highly sensitive topics. He had neither the education nor the military experience.

Yes, I know the excuse will be that his records have been altered so that he couldn’t prove what he said. This is just a weak excuse to provide an answer for all those who didn’t believe him. The truth is that military records aren’t just a single file with everything in it. They cover a lot of ground from a lot of sources and it would be impossible to alter everything. There is just too much of it.

Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that Cooper claimed he had attended a specific military school... maybe at the DIA, as part of his training. All that would be recorded in his 201 File, which, upon his leaving the military whether as a retiree or having been discharged at the end of this tour, would have been sent to the National Archives in St. Louis. Now that document, in a single place, would be easy to find and alter.

But, there would be records of his attendance at the DIA school. There would have been a certificate given to him at the completion of the course (I have lots of these from various military schools). Depending on the specific school, there might be rosters available. There would be records in his home unit. There might be base newspaper stories written by the Public Affairs Office about his participation or completion of the training. There are literally dozens of sources of documentation. But with Cooper none of that was available. His records simply did not reflect his various claims.

I have been through this before when a witness’s records do not match the story he or she is telling. The big fire in St. Louis destroyed them is a favorite excuse. They have been altered is another. Stolen is yet another... But the point is that multiple sources exist and records can be reconstituted. They can be reconstructed. And there are so many sources out there that they all can’t be altered, hidden or destroyed. The validation would be available... or rather enough would be to question the idea he was lying about his service.

There is nothing to support Cooper’s claims, other than he served in the Navy and was honorably discharged. There were many in the UFO community who wanted to believe him and many who tried to find evidence to support his claims. In the end, there was no where to go. The trail ended with Cooper and that just isn’t good enough.

As for his book, I suppose I should point out that inside the UFO community it is called "Behold a Pail of Horses..t." There just isn’t anything in it that can be confirmed and without validation we believe what he wrote at our own risk.

Our best move is to point out that Cooper was a wild man who could not prove what he claimed and let it go at that. He is but another footnote in the great UFO search.

13 comments:

Gilles Fernandez said...

Greetings Kevin,

In Zapruder's film (I have the impression you bad spelled his name^^), you have a sort of optical effect concerning the driver, cause he turns in President Kennedy direction at the moment the shoot to the head is made (but before too, probably cause "paniking" and wanted to see what's happening).

For example here at around 11 or 12'':
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozx4_4DZp38

I remember to already read such remark like Cooper one in several french "whoowhooland" conspirationist's forum.

Of course, like you, it is not what I see (the driver firing, but only turning in President's direction).

Best Regards,

Gilles F.

cda said...

psst. Have you heard the rumor that JFK had to be bumped off (as did Marilyn Monroe) because they knew the truth about a certain UFO crash?
I wonder which one it was.

Kandinsky said...

Hiya Kevin.

Cooper was also crazy enough to practically invite the Feds to his family home for a shoot out via his website.

Although he's a somewhat tawdry footnote in ufology, I suspect his legacy has had a wider impact.

Between Cooper, Lear and Grace they brought theatrically elaborate conspiracies of evil aliens. They weren't alone in coming up with these dark fantasies, but have done more than most to disseminate the 'reality.' Likewise, they didn't single-handedly invent the idea of DUMBs yet certainly did present the idea of vats of human body parts and aliens torturing humans. Notwithstanding Hopkins, Sprinkle and Jacobs, all those Dulce and Krill claims have fanned the flames of the evil alien abduction scenarios.

I could be wrong, however I also see the chemtrail crowd as being an off-shoot of the paranoid themes inherent in Cooper et al's crazy stories. Despite Cooper being wholly discredited by those inside and outside of ufology, he still has a lot of supporters. Even Lear is still spreading rumours and tales of evil aliens farming our souls and attracting support. It's a crazy world! In this sense, they poured so much disinformation and lies into the UFO pool that a lot of people can't see past it.

I know you're one of the researchers that has little time for this kind of BS and sees it for what it is. Unfortunately, a lot of people take it too seriously. These guys have caused a lot of unnecessary damage to ufology in general...in my opinion of course.

All the best,
K

Daro said...

Totally off topic but I'm frustrated. I can't find one reference by the professional skeptics addressing Gordon Cooper's (mercury astronaut) claims that he saw a UFO lad and take off personally. It's akin to the global warming denialists who refuse the address the opening of the North West passage in the Arctic. The dissonance is killing me! Am I crazy? Is global warming an illusion? Is Gordon Cooper a madman? I saw "The Right Stuff" ten times. They tested those guys every which-way. No loonies got included in the seven(?) Mercury team. Please, somebody put me out of my misery. Was "Gordo" Cooper (played by Dennis Quaid in the movie) just mad? Or can we accept his testimonial as evidence?

Kandinsky said...

@Daro

If we're talking about the same incident, Cooper didn't actually see the UFO land and take off. He was back at Edwards AFB at the time. His original account was he saw some frames of the footage taken by three other personnel who allegedly witnessed the event. They returned with the film can and Cooper had a peep before sending it up the line.

In the past two years, his account has been 'Chinese whispered' into his actually being there. You tube has led the way and some crummy websites have embellished even more.

cda said...

What about Edgar Mitchell of Apollo 14 fame? Doesn't he claim to have seen some official documentation proving Roswell was ET? If so, the final proof is there, eh Kevin. Or has this tale, like Cooper's, grown with time?

cda said...

Re my previous post, here is the Wikipedia entry, final paragraph of the text:

<< Moon-walker and Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell has made various public statements about the reality of Roswell: "Make no mistake, Roswell happened. I've seen secret files which show the government knew about it — but decided not to tell the public. I wasn't convinced about the existence of aliens until I started talking to the military old-timers who were there at the time of Roswell. The more government documentation on aliens I was told about, the more convinced I became." Mitchell has also spoken about bodies: "A few insiders know the truth . . . and are studying the bodies that have been discovered." Mitchell added that a cabal of insiders stopped briefing Presidents after Kennedy.>>

So be it.

Terry the Censor said...

@Daro

Some sources to back up Kandinsky's point:

Cooper interview: After the sighting, the carema crew "came into my office and told me what had happened."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvPR8T1o3Dc

Coooper's autobiography, Leap of Faith: "...they came running in to tell me that a 'strange-looking saucer' had come right over them" (pp 82-3)

Cooper's claims are problemmatic. He says he was the boss of the camera crew but they claim otherwise. Also, Cooper's description of the sighting does not jibe with that of the witnesses, who claimed the object was 500 yards to a mile away, never landed, did not have landing gear, etc. It seems Cooper inserted himself into the story many years after the fact.
http://www.nicap.org/edwards570502mcd.htm
http://www.nicap.org/edwards570502sparks.htm
http://www.cohenufo.org/Oberg/isogc_ufos2.htm

UFO enthusiasts pass along Cooper's "claim" endlessly but do not seem to site Cooper himself, let alone the photographers or the investigators who spoke to them. It's telling, I think, of the way dogmatic believers do research.

> I saw "The Right Stuff" ten times. They tested those guys every which-way.

QED.

calvin36 said...

all though you cant see the driver actually shoot kennedy you do see kennedy,s go back and to the right at about the same time also if you will take note of the first lady,s response after the last shot was fired before that she was all about her husband trying to care of him and stay down,after the last shot was fired she tried to exit the vehicle from the back,because the presence of danger was from inside the car,strange?!..

calvin36 said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
13 said...

i belive in him
he doesnt semm to lie or its a make up history thats one

you should investgate his speaks

kennedy assaination
allien abducation and implanting (see youtube itallian woman who abducate and implanted in her brain by aliens , the host of the show take her to x-ray test of her head and they see the device in her head and more evedence should see it....)
3.the archivest of the cia who died in suspicious condittion on 2004 48 hours after the interview (his interview with projectcamelot.com and the files about mj-12 and yellow book which cooper mentioned years years ago)

memememe said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
azabigail said...

It's been a few years from the writing of Pale Horse, and this blog. I also watched a video of Cooper presenting information on the NWO. I think that if Copper was not directly involved in top secret briefings, he may have as a lower ranking person employed as a "gofer" overheard much of what he claims as truth and decided to inject himself in as a player. As for Kennedy I believe he was elimimated because he had begun to resist, and make public, the activities of NWO elites. Cooper may have embellished the information that he had accumulated but he was embellishing it to inject himself into it. The shoot out probably happened because what he was saying became a threat to someone, as with President Kennedy. Here we are years later and we have seen some things that make some of what he claimed seem not too far fetched at all.