James W. Moseley (born August 4, 1931 in New York City) is an American ufologist. Nickname: Big Apple, Gotham, NYC, City That Never Sleeps, The Concrete Jungle, The City So Nice They Named It Twice Location in the state of New York Coordinates: Country United States State New York Boroughs The Bronx Brooklyn Manhattan Queens Staten Island Settled 1676 Government  - Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area... Ufology is the study of Unidentified flying object (UFO) reports, sightings, and other related phenomena. ...

Probably best-known as the publisher and editor of the newsletters Saucer News and Saucer Smear, Mosely is one of the longest-active figures in ufology, representing a unique and deeply personal presence on the UFO scene. He has exposed UFO hoxers and perpetrated fraud in his career, and, according to Jerome Clark (Clark, 2005), has "entertained just about every view it is possible to hold about UFOs, without every managing to say anything especially interesting or memorable about any of them." Jerome Clark (1946 - ) is an American researcher and writer, specializing in unidentified flying objects and other anomalous phenomena; he is also a songwriter of some note. ...

Biography

Born in to a military family (his father would attain the rank of General in the U.S. Army) Moseley attended Princeton University for two years. Despite earning good marks, he dropped out to pursue his own interests and hobbies, including archeology (he took part in numerous South American expeditions in the 1950s and '60s). Princeton University is a coeducational private university located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States of America. ... Archaeology or sometimes in American English archeology (from the Greek words αρχαίος = ancient and λόγος = word/speech) is the study of human cultures through the recovery, documentation and analysis of material remains, including architecture, artefacts, biofacts, human remains, and landscapes. ... South America South America is a continent crossed by the equator, with most of its area in the Southern Hemisphere. ...

He became interested in UFOs following the 1947 claims of pilot Kenneth Arnold (the same UFO sighting that sparked widespread interest in the subject), but his interest deepened following the 1948 death of U.S. Air Force pilot Thomas Mantell in pursuit of an UFO. Kenneth A. Arnold (born March 29, 1915 in Sebeka, Minnesota; died January 16, 1984 in Bellevue, Washington) was an American businessman and pilot. ...

In July, 1954, Moseley co-founded Saucer News, a periodical remembered for its unorthodox, "freewheeling" (Clark, 2002) style. Saucer News only occasionally featured serious UFO research; notably, Moseley was among the first to publicize evidence against the claims of leading "contactee" George Adamski. Contactees are persons who claim to be in regular contact with extraterrestrials. ... George Adamski (April 17, 1891 – April 23, 1965) was a Polish-born American who claimed to have seen and photographed ships from other planets, met people from other planets (whom he called Space Brothers), and to have gone on flights with them. ...

Saucer News was sold to Gray Barker in 1968. Moseley became a regular lecturer on UFOs for several years, and organized an annual convention. In 1970, he founded a newsletter that went by several titles until Moseley settled on Saucer Smear in 1981. He produces the newsletter irregularly, and mailed it free-of-charge to about 200 friends and associates. Saucer Smear typically has a joking, gossipy tone.

Moseley reports (Story, 1980; Clark, 2002) that he's accepted, then rejected, a number of explanations for UFOs. In roughly chronological order, he considered the extraterrestrial hypothesis; a secret weapon/aircraft hypothesis, psychic/supernatural/interdimensional hypotheses in the vein of John Keel or Jacques Vallee; deep skepticism; and agnosticism. A photograph taken in Passoria, New Jersey, on July 31 1952 The Extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH) is the hypothesis that UFOs are best explained as being creatures from other planets occupying physical spacecraft visiting Earth. ... John A. Keel. ... Dr. Allen Hynek (back), and Dr. Jacques Vallee (far right, front) at U.N. General Assembly, 1978. ... For the Finnish funeral doom metal band, see Skepticism (band). ... The term agnosticism and the related agnostic were coined by Thomas Henry Huxley in 1869. ...

In 1984, Mosely established an antiques store in Key West, Florida, which serves as his primary occupation. Antiques (Latin antiquus, old) are objects which have reached an age which makes them a witness of a previous era in human society. ... Nickname: The Conch Republic, Southernmost City In The Continental United States Coordinates: Country United States State Florida County Monroe Government Type Council-Manager  - Mayor Morgan McPherson Area    - City  7. ...

With Karl T. Pflock, Mosely co-wrote a memoir, Shockingly Close to the Truth! (2002)

The Straith Hoax

Mosely was long suspected of having co-created a phony 1957 letter as a prank against contactee George Adamski. After years of alternately denying the charges, evading the subject, and hinting at responsibility, Mosely admitted to the "Straith Hoax" in 1985 (Clark, 2005; Mosely and Pflock, 2002) This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Contactees are persons who claim to be in regular contact with extraterrestrials. ... George Adamski (April 17, 1891 – April 23, 1965) was a Polish-born American who claimed to have seen and photographed ships from other planets, met people from other planets (whom he called Space Brothers), and to have gone on flights with them. ...

In 1957, Moseley's friend Gray Barker had acquired some blank U.S. Governmental letterhead stationary and envelopes from a friend. During an alcohol-fueled weekend, Moseley and Barker wrote seven letters, each using official letterhead. Five of the letters were jokes to friends; only two of the letters were outright hoaxes, the Adamski letter and one to Moseley's father.

The letter to Adamski was signed by the fictional "R.E. Straith", a representative of the non-existent "Cultural Exchange Committee" of the U.S. State Department. Straith wrote that the U.S. Government knew that Adamski had actually spoken to extraterrestrials in a California desert in 1952, and that a group of highly-placed government officials planned on public corroboration of Adamski's story. The United States Department of State, often referred to as the State Department, is the Cabinet-level foreign affairs agency of the United States government, equivalent to foreign ministries in other countries. ...

Adamski took great pride in the Straith letter, and publicized its contents. FBI agents investigated the letter, and, since none of the claims were genuine, asked Adamski to stop publicizing the letter (Adamski refused).

FBI agents also questioned Barker and Mosely about the matter, but no criminal charges were ever filed against them for the misuse of letterhead.

Mosely has also been quoted (Clark, 2002) as stating that he committed multiple UFO "hoaxes", but the incidents are not detailed by Clark.

Sources

• Clark, Jerome, The UFO Encylopedia: The Phenomenon from the Beginning, Volume 2, L-Z Detroit: Omnigraphics, 1998 (2nd edition, 2005), ISBN 0-7808-0097-4
• Mosely, James W. and Karl T. Pflock, Shockingly Close to the Truth! Confessions of a Grave-Robbing Ufologist Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books, 2002, ISBN 1-57392-991-3
• Story, Ronald J. (editor) and J. Richard Greenwell (consulting editor), The Encyclopedia of UFOs, Garden City: Doubleday & Co, 1980, ISBN 0-385-13677-3