William
Leonard Moore (born October 31, 1943?) is
an author and former UFO researcher. Prominent
from the late 1970s to the late 1980s, he co-authored
two books with Charles Berlitz, including The
Roswell Incident - the first book written about
the alleged Roswell UFO crash/retrieval. Bill Moore later
became a controversial figure within UFOlogy due to his
involvement with a group of intelligence contacts known
as ‘The Aviary’.
He played a role in The
Bennewitz Affair, and was a central figure
in the release of the controversial Majestic
12 documents.
Early
career
Bill
Moore has a background in the
Liberal Arts,
History,
Teaching and English. He speaks fluent French and holds
a degree in Russian. Moore attended Thiel College,
located in Greenville, Pennsylvania graduating in 1965.
Before deciding to concentrate on his writing career,
he taught Language and Humanities
at various high schools. Bill Moore was a subscriber
to NICAP,
and during the mid to late 1960s, he was asked to investigate
a couple of UFO cases for the group. He was later on the
board of directors of APRO,
based in Arizona.
Moore
wrote The Philadelphia Experiment
with Charles
Berlitz. Published in 1979, it details
the
alleged 1943 U.S. Navy cloaking experiment of the destroyer
escort USS Eldridge at the Philadelphia Naval Yard.
The
Roswell Incident
Whilst
Bill Moore was based in Minnesota and still publicizing
The Philadelphia Experiment,
he met with fellow UFO researcher Stanton
T. Friedman who he knew, to compare notes.
Friedman stated to Moore that he had recently travelled
to Louisiana and spoken to a retired Major
Jesse Marcel, after following up on an
earlier lead he received from a radio station manager
whilst he was waiting for an interview. Jesse Marcel detailed
to Friedman his involvement in an incident that had occurred
almost 30 years previously - the handling of wreckage
from an
alleged crash of a craft during July 1947 in Roswell,
New Mexico.
Moore
also had some information pertaining to a UFO crash, and
when they thought it could be connected to the same story,
they began to research the case further. Moore later raised
the idea of a book with his writing partner, Charles
Berlitz, who liked the idea. Within a relatively
short period of time, Moore conducted the field work,
interviewed eyewitnesses, prepared reports and sent them
to Berlitz in New York who wrote up the chapters of the
book. The Roswell Incident
was published in 1980, and was the first book written
about the alleged Roswell UFO crash/retrieval.
Interactions
with 'The Aviary'
In
late 1980, after the release of The
Roswell Incident, Moore received a phone call
after appearing on a radio show where he was promoting
the new book. In October 1988, on the nationally televised
UFO Cover-Up?: Live!
broadcast, Bill Moore described:
"I
got a phone call after appearing on a radio show from
a man who said 'you're the only person we've heard talk
about this subject, who seems to know what he’s talking
about'. He convinced me that he was a government intelligence
agent and wanted to begin disseminating some information
about UFOs to the public."
The
original contact Moore later met was to be known as 'Falcon'.
In exchange for information received, Moore would keep
tabs on sections of the UFO research community. This also
included taking part in disinformation activities against
Paul
Bennewitz with AFOSI
agent Richard C. Doty, as Moore would later
admit at the 1989 Las Vegas MUFON
conference. Throughout the 80s, the group of
intelligence contacts grew in number, each given a bird
name - hence, they became known as 'The
Aviary'.
In
June 1982, television producer Jaime
Shandera joined forces with Moore to attend
the meetings and collaborate on the research, including
the discovery of the existence of MJ-12 - the purported
high-level policy-making group overseeing the UFO and
extraterrestrial issue. In 1984, Moore and Shandera received
the now-infamous MJ-12 documents as a 35mm black and white
film that was mailed to Jaime Shandera in a plain brown
envelope. Their contacts with The Aviary continued until
the 1990s when Moore and Shandera eventually left the
UFO research field.
Recent
Activities
In
the last few years, William Moore has been interviewed
several times by researcher Greg Bishop on his radio show
Radio Mysterioso
regarding his past involvement in UFOlogy. In one of the
interviews, Bill Moore reveals he still writes, though
not about UFOs - he carries out editorial work for a newspaper,
and has been acting as an historian
researching and writing about The
Book of Mormon.
William
Moore was also a central figure in Greg Bishop's 2005
book detailing the Bennewitz Affair Project Beta: The
Story of Paul Bennewitz, National Security, and the Creation
of a Modern UFO Myth. Some of Moore's activities
and interactions with The Aviary
have also been detailed in the 2006 book, Exempt
from Disclosure: The Black World of UFOs by
Aviary members Robert M. Collins aka 'Condor' and Richard
C. Doty - the surrogate 'Falcon'.
Books
• The Philadelphia Experiment
- Project Invisibility (1979)
• The Roswell Incident
(1980)
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Moore_%28ufologist%29
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUgTDXZAElw
