He Died On June 24, 2019

It often takes time to learn who passes away on a certain date. Generally noticed, of course, are the more famous, well-known, and/or notorious people, about whom we learn the quickest. Virtually immediately the media tells the world about those deaths, as they are usually framed as "celebrities."

On June 22, 2019, I asked "Who Will Die on June 24, 2019?" I felt this might be someone who would be ufo-aligned, as I put it, pass away on St. John's Day. Let's take in this news.

New York Tabloid News Legend Dies

One such individual, called a "New York tabloid news legend" and "the heart of New York Post" by the media, died on Monday, June 24, 2019: Steve Dunleavy. He passed away at his Long Island, New York home. At 81, having retired in 2008, one might feel his death was expected. But it was not.

His son Sean Dunleavy told the New York Daily News on Monday, "It just was very sudden. But he was home, it was peaceful. But we don’t know what the cause of death was."

Steve Dunleavy was a member of the world's stage.

Stephen Francis Patrick Aloysius Dunleavy (January 21, 1938 – June 24, 2019) was born in Sydney, Australia on January 21, 1938, grew up to be a journalist in Australia at The Sun and The Daily Mirror, then became best known as a columnist for the New York Post from 1976 to 2008, after Rupert Murdoch purchased the group that owned the paper. He was a lead reporter on the tabloid television program A Current Affair in the 1980s and 1990s.

His reality television and tabloid newspaper reporting focussed on some rather infamous cases, including interviews and stories with the mother of Sirhan Sirhan, Robert F. Kennedy’s assassin, and the confessed “Boston Strangler” Albert DeSalvo, about the Beltway Snipers, with the "Son of Sam" victim families, and with Elvis Presley’s “Memphis Mafia” bodyguards.

Dunleavy's book, Elvis: What Happened? (July 1977) was prophetically published two weeks before Elvis died (August 1977) and became a best-selling book.

Dunleavy's irreverent shock-jock style was the model for actor Robert Downey Jr.'s performance as "Wayne Gale" in Oliver Stone's film Natural Born Killers. Downey spent time with Dunleavy as part of preparing for the role. Dunleavy is credited on IMDb for his reality work, as well as an actor, known for The Preppie Murder (1989),  So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993), and The Vampire Project (1995). (Are there Cryptokubrulogy links here?)

Dunleavy and UFOs

While working on the New York Post and A Current Affair, Steve Dunleavy was surrounded by an atmosphere that included Elvis' obsession with UFOs in Elvis: What Happened?, of course. Dunleavy apparently was regaled about Elvis's alleged dealings with extraterrestrials, including a bright blue UFO witnessed by his father, Vernon, the night baby Elvis was born. Elvis was also said to have had been contacted by two “alien beings.” Elvis was a firm believer in UFOs and claimed to have seen them on many occasions.

But what of Steve Dunleavy? As it turns out, Dunleavy is the #23rd eyewitness claimed for a very famous UFO incident. Dunleavy was part of UFO history.

One of the most debated, discussed, and famous UFO abduction cases is the Linda Cortile incident.

The abstract of the event begins thusly,

On Thursday, November 30, 1989, at 3:15 a.m., New York City resident Linda Cortile was reportedly abducted by aliens from her 12th story apartment on the lower east side of Manhattan. Five aliens allegedly came into her bedroom while she was still awake. They paralyzed her and moved her into her living room. Linda and three of the five aliens were then floated out through her living room window in fetal positions, directly through the regulation window fence guard. The other two aliens appeared to have remained in her apartment until she was returned. (For the rest, see here.)

As Sean F. Meets notes in his website on the case, "In the Linda Cortile UFO abduction case there are 23 witnesses that are on the public record."
 At the end of the list, you will find this:

Witness #23 - Reporter Steve Dunleavy (Late 2002)

The twenty-third witness to Linda's case was Steve Dunleavy, an investigative reporter for the New York Post. Dunleavy was an independent, firsthand eyewitness to the procession of limousines along South Street during the November 30, 1989 UFO abduction. His addition as a witness came in Late 2002 when Yancy Spence phoned him to see what Dunleavy recollected about the November 30, 1989 UFO abduction incident.

"The Day Manhattan Stood Still" 

''A TRUE EYE-WITNESS ACCOUNT OF THE SOUTH STREET ABDUCTIONS'', 

by Yancy Spence

In the comments below, a person wrote, "Mr. Dunleavy was not just a witness,he was a participant in the abduction. He was taken from the upstairs bar at the South St Dinner at 3:15 and returned at 3:55 along with three other coworkers who were taken as well. They all had physical traces on their bodies from the abduction."

Intriguing, in the midst of the debunking and defensive of the Linda Cortile case, we find skeptic George Hansen versus ufological intellectual Jerome Clark. On October 24, 1992, Clark issued a rebuttal entitled, "The Politics of Torquemada; or, Earth Calling Hansen's Planet." Clark was responding to Hansen's October 12, 1992 memo to Budd Hopkins, Walt Andrus, John Mack, David Jacobs, and Jerome Clark.

Now late in June 2019, Steve Dunleavy, Witness #23, has died.

And so too are gone these defenders of the Linda Cortile incident challenged by George Hansen:

American psychiatrist, alien abduction researcher, writer, and professor at Harvard Medical School, Dr. John Mack died Monday, September 27, 2004, in London, England.

Artist, author, speaker, and ufo investigator Budd Hopkins died on Sunday, August 21, 2011, in New York City.

Motorola manager and founder of the Mutual UFO Network Walt Andrus died on Wednesday, September 16, 2015, in Cibolo, Texas.

Stanton T. Friedman Dies

In Stanton Friedman's New York Times obituary of May 21, 2019, his appearance in popular culture was noted. Below is my remembrance of Stan that appeared on May 14, 2019.

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American physicist and flying saucer investigator/author Stanton T. Friedman living in Canada, has died.  Friedman was returning from a speaking engagement in Columbus, Ohio, when he died suddenly at the Toronto Pearson Airport on Monday night, May 13, 2019, according to his family.

Stan's last photographs were taken of him at George Noory's Live Stage Show, at the Lincoln Theater in Columbus, Ohio, on Saturday, May 11, 2019. Here are pictured (l to r, above): Stan, Tom Danheiser, Mary Ann Winkowski, George Noory, Lori Wagner, and Jim Harold.  (Coast to Coast AM Courtesy Photo).

An individual picture of Stan was shared by Jim Harold.

The Lincoln Theatre in Columbus, Ohio, syncs with the #Lincoln and #Columbus name games in Fortean literature. The Lincoln Theatre opened on November 26, 1928 as the Ogden Theatre. It was designed in the Egyptian Revival style, renamed the Lincoln in 1939 and continued operating as a movie theater through the 1960s. It has become a performance venue since then. The Lincoln Theatre is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Stanton Friedman's last playbill, sadly.

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Stanton T. Friedman with Loren Coleman (l) and Tim Binnall (r) shared good times, at the talks during the 2015, Nova Scotia conference.

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Stanton T. Friedman was a dual citizen of the USA and Canada and lived in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, just across the Maine border from the USA.

Kathleen Marden, a co-author and friend, who first reported widely that on June 30, 2014, Stan had a heart attack, was one of those who confirmed Stan's death of May 13, 2019, as did his family and reporter Tim Binnall. Stan was 84 years old; his birthday is July 29, 1934.

Friedman formerly called himself "The Flying Saucer Physicist," because of his degrees in nuclear physics and his work on nuclear projects, according to separate ufo encyclopedia authors Ronald Story and Jerome Clark.

A word about the terms "UFO" versus "flying saucer": Friedman has consistently favored the use of the term "flying saucer" in his work, saying "Flying saucers are, by definition, unidentified flying objects, but very few unidentified flying objects are flying saucers. I am interested in the latter, not the former."

Stan with me at the International Cryptozoology Museum in 2014.

Because Stan was a prolific speaker at UFO-related conferences, his biography is well-known to most in the field. I've been a speaker at several conferences where Stan was a speaker too.  At a Nova Scotia conference in 2015, I drove my car from Maine, and because Stan was without a vehicle, I became his personal driver for the weekend. I got to hear Stan's stories during many drives, and many meals we shared. The conversations, believe it or not, were not about "flying saucers." Every one was about his family.

Stan Friedman grew up in Linden, New Jersey, and married twice. He first married Susie Virginia Porter; he divorced her in April 1974. He adopted three children with his first wife and had one daughter with his second wife, Marilyn. His story was about adoption and re-discovery. Stan's private stories were of love and connections. Perhaps someday a book will be written of that part of his life.

Paul Kimball introduced his uncle to the audience at a conference in Nova Scotia.

Stan Friedman relocated to Marilyn's native New Brunswick in the early 1980s. Stan's nephew is UFO film & television writer, producer, director, and author Paul Kimball. Along with Marilyn, Stan leaves behind his daughters Rachel and Melissa (David Parsons), a grandson, James Kenneth (Luzelle Carranza Aquino) and a great grandson, James. He was predeceased by two sons, Sean and James Leo. 

Stanton Friedman drawing by Nick Shev.

Nuclear physicist-author-lecturer Stanton T. Friedman received his BSc. and MSc. degrees in physics from the University of Chicago in 1955 and 1956.  To put himself through college, Stan worked as a waiter in the Catskills. It was there in the “Borscht Belt” that, as he would say, he "first laid eyes on a lobster and danced with debutantes."

Stan was employed for 14 years as a nuclear physicist by such companies as GE, GM, Westinghouse, TRW Systems, Aerojet General Nucleonics, and McDonnell-Douglas working in such highly advanced, classified, eventually cancelled programs as nuclear aircraft, fission and fusion rockets, and various compact nuclear power-plants for space and terrestrial applications.

Stan became interested in UFOs in 1958, and since 1967, he lectured about them at more than 600 colleges and 100 professional groups across the United States, Canada, and worldwide, in addition to various nuclear consulting efforts. He published more than 90 UFO papers and appeared on hundreds of radio and TV programs including on Larry King in 1997, 2007 and twice in 2008, and many documentaries. He was the original civilian investigator of the Roswell Incident and co-authored Crash at Corona: The Definitive Study of the Roswell Incident. TOP SECRET/MAJIC his controversial book about the Majestic 12 group, established in 1947 to deal with alien technology, was published in 1996 and went through 6 printings. An expanded new edition was published in 2005.

In 2016, Fact Fiction and Flying Saucers by Stanton T. Friedman and Kathleen Marden, was published.

Stan was presented with a Lifetime UFO Achievement Award in Leeds, England, in 2002, by UFO Magazine of the UK. He co-authored with Kathleen Marden (Betty Hill’s Niece) of a book in 2007: Captured! The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience. His book Flying Saucers and Science was published in June 2008 and went into several printings. His Science Was Wrong with Kathleen Marden, was published in June 2010.

Stanton Friedman, one of the leading authorities on UFOs, was pictured taking part in a parade in McMinnville, Oregon, in 2013. His work was also celebrated in New Brunswick, and the City of Fredericton declared Aug. 27, 2007, Stanton Friedman Day. On July 2, 2010, he was inducted into the Roswell UFO Hall of Fame.

Stan provided written testimony to Congressional Hearings, appeared twice at the UN, and was a pioneer in many aspects of ufology including Roswell, Majestic 12, The Betty Hill- Marjorie Fish star map work, analysis of the Delphos, Kansas, physical trace case, crashed saucers, flying saucer technology, and challenges to the S.E.T.I. (which he characterized as "Silly Effort To Investigate") cultists.

Stan T. Friedman had spoken at more MUFON Symposia than any other individual. Over the years, he lectured in 10 provinces, 50 states, and 19 countries.

The world of "flying saucers" and ufology thought has lost a giant. 

All who meet him were touched by his magic and enthusiasm.

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Some photos of Stan with more friends and colleagues: Deborah and Audrey Starborn Hewins, Kathleen Marden, Allison Jorlin, and Greg Bishop.

Stan Friedman's last interview at the Roswell UFO Festival served to be prophetic. He talks of being tired, and the lose of tolerance he has for so many connections between his speaking engagements and getting back to Canada. It will be recalled, it was at his Toronto airport connection from Columbus to back home where he died.

BTW, some remembrances have credited Stan with "founding the Roswell UFO Museum." Praise for Stanton T. Friedman has been out-of-this-world, deservedly. But he was not the founder of the Roswell NM UFO Museum. That honor goes to Glenn Dennis (March 24, 1925 – April 28, 2015), who was a eyewitness to the 1947 Roswell UFO incident. The Museum opened in Sept 1991.

A public visitation will be held at the York Funeral Home on Friday, May 17, 2019 from 4-8pm. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the International UFO Museum & Research centre in Roswell, New Mexico.

UFOs In Her DNA

Alessandra Biaggi, a progressive first time candidate, won the Democratic nomination for the New York State Senate in District 34 in New York City, beating a 13-year incumbent on September 13, 2018.

Biaggi entered politics with an internship for Representative Joseph Crowley (D-NY). She went on to work at the Kings County D.A.’s Office, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of NY, the Presidential Succession Clinic at the John D. Feerick Center for Social Justice as an editor, and the NYS Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery as Assistant General Counsel.

In early 2015, Biaggi was offered a position on the vetting team of the Hillary Clinton campaign. On April 1, 2015, her official title on the campaign became Deputy National Operations Director. 

On Thursday, September 13th, Alessandra Biaggi's, as the New York Times noted, "high-profile casualty was Senator Jeffrey D. Klein of the Bronx, the former head of the I.D.C. In that role, he was for years one of Albany’s most powerful players, sharing leadership of the chamber with his counterparts in the Republican conference and participating in the state’s secretive budget negotiations."

As her Key Wiki page quietly mentions: "Alessandra Biaggi's grandfather was Representative Mario Biaggi of New York."

Her father's father is former Congressman Mario Biaggi, who died at the age of 97. The date he passed away - June 24 - in 2015 - is one of the most significant in ufological history. It is the date that marks the beginning of the "modern era of flying saucers," June 24, 1947.

Mario Biaggi was involved in the "UFO disclosure" movement, and was once pictured on the cover of Ideal's UFO MAGAZINE, December 1978, Number 4. Within the periodical, there appeared the following, "Interview: Mario Biaggi 'There Is A UFO Cover-Up By The Government.'" 

On the cover, an image of Biaggi was shown with President Jimmy Carter.

Mario Biaggi (October 26, 1917 – June 24, 2015) was a U.S. Representative from New York (serving from 1969 to 1988) and former New York City police officer. He was elected as a Democrat from The Bronx in New York City. In 1987 and 1988, he was convicted in two separate corruption trials, and he resigned from Congress in 1988. Was he driven from office because he knew too much?

What surprises are in store for the electorate from Alessandra Biaggi? Stay tuned.

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For a complete list of those who might be associated with the UFO field who died on June 24ths, see here. 

John A. Keel's Brother Has Died

John Alva Keel, 79, known for his UFO research and books, including The Mothman Prophecies, lived most of his life in New York City. He died July 3, 2009, at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, after some months in a nursing home near his Upper West Side apartment.

Alva John Kiehle (later to be known as John Keel) was born on March 25, 1930, in Hornell, New York, the son of a small-time bandleader. His parents separated and he was raised by his grandparents. Various half- and full-siblings survived him in upstate New York State and then throughout the country.

One was Raymond Kiley. He has passed away. Below is his obituary. 

Raymond L. Kiley {January 15, 1941 - June 4, 2018}
PERRY {New York} — Raymond L. Kiley, 77 of Perry, passed away on Monday, June 4, 2018. He was born in Warsaw, to the late Chester (Irene Gibbs) Kiley. He is preceded in death by his brother, John Keel.
Ray enjoyed collecting sap, making maple syrup, fishing and cutting wood. He attended services at the First Congregational Church in Perry Center. Ray was a man that loved to work and was still working for Donald G. Butler Construction in Perry.
He is survived by his children, Joyce Wilson of Las Vegas, Nev., Christine (Ken) Gilbert of Pavilion, Denise (Patrick) McIntyre of Perry, Daniel (Wendy) Kiley of Perry; sisters, Mary White and Cheryl Keaton, both of Florida; seven grandchildren; eight great-grandchildren; along with many nieces and nephews.
{Raymond L. Kiley was} laid to rest in Glenwood Cemetery in Perry {New York}. Source.

Raymond Kiley enjoyed Halloween. 

Thanks to P.H. and D.S. for info and/or images.

John Mack, Lawrence of Arabia, and September 27th

When I appeared on Gene Steinberg's The Paracast on June 24, 2018, I was challenged by his cohost J. Randall Murphy, a Canadian ufologist, throughout the program. As I was talking about the anniversary syndrome, and the special link of the date June 24th to ufologists' deaths, Murphy contested the death date of John Mack as merely having occurred at random. He felt this was true because it was allegedly an accidental incident.

I, of course, said that was possible. After all, I had not brought up Mack's death, and did not support Mack's date of death as evidence of anything.  But I was curious to dig a bit deeper to analyze what might be one view behind that specific life event for John Mack. Here are some thoughts on the question of John Mack's demise. It is a stream-of-consciousness exploration to connect some dots. But it is not a thesis to explain why, exactly, Dr. Mack died when he did. I generally am comfortable saying "I don't know when asked these sorts of questions."

Who is John Mack? The standard biographical background for Mack notes his full name was John Edward Mack. He was born October 4, 1929 in New York City, and died September 27, 2004. He was an American psychiatrist, alien abduction researcher, writer, and professor at Harvard Medical School. He was a Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer, a leading investigator and writer on alien abduction experiences, and a campaigner for the elimination of nuclear weapons.

John E. Mack and Bud Hopkins.

Mack authored several books reflective of his interests, including,

Nightmares and Human Conflict (1970)
A Prince of Our Disorder: The Life of T.E. Lawrence (1976)
Vivienne: The Life and Suicide of an Adolescent School Girl (1977)
Abduction: Human Encounters with Aliens (1994)
Alien Discussions: Proceedings of the Abduction Study Conference Held at M.I.T. Cambridge, MA (1995), and
Passport to the Cosmos: Human Transformation and Alien Encounters (1999).

Mack was a T. E. Lawrence scholar. His 1976 book, A Prince of Our Disorder, a biographical study of the life of British officer T. E. Lawrence, won for Mack the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 1977. This is no small honor.

So, was there some significance to the date September 27th, the date Mack died?

The book that launched the legend of T. E. Lawrence was Seven Pillars of Wisdom. The book is the autobiographical account of the experiences of British soldier T. E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia"), while serving as a liaison officer with rebel forces during the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Turks of 1916 to 1918. It is credited as having been first published in December 1926, in England.

T. E. Lawrence recorded the following about his experiences, on what he credits as a date that impacted him greatly: 

Lawrence describes one of the most controversial episodes of his experience in the Desert. On September 27, 1918 he and his Arab force were in hot pursuit of a retreating Turkish column numbering approximately 2,000 soldiers. Coming upon the village of Tafas south of the city of Damascus they were confronted with the horrifying aftermath of the Turk rampage through the village. Mutilated bodies of women and children lay among the smoking ruins. As the sickened Lawrence watched the scattered Turkish column disappear over the horizon he gave his order: "take no prisoners."

He describes the carnage, then ends with:

By my order we took no prisoners, for the only time in our war.

In Seven Pillars of Wisdom, Lawrence wrote this of September 27, 1918:

“In a madness born of the horror of Tafas we killed and killed, even blowing in the heads of the fallen and of the animals, as though their death and running blood could slake our agony.”

T. E. Lawrence and Lowell Thomas, 1918.

The early media adventurer Lowell Thomas introduced London audiences to "With Allenby in Palestine and Lawrence in Arabia," as announced via an advertisement in The London Times, September 27, 1919.

Peter O'Toole played the lead character in Lawrence of Arabia (1962). 

After the 1926 release of the Subscribers' Edition, Lawrence stated that no further issue of Seven Pillars of Wisdom would be made during his lifetime. Lawrence was killed in a motorcycle accident in May 1935, at the age of 46.

With great fanfare, The New York Times announced on August 27, 1935, that the first American edition of Seven Pillars of Wisdom since the death of T. E. Lawrence would be published on September 27, 1935.

On Monday, September 27, 2004 while in London to lecture at a T. E. Lawrence Society-sponsored conference, Dr. Mack was killed by a drunken driver heading west on Totteridge Lane. He was walking home alone, after a dinner with friends, when he was struck at 11:25 p.m. near the junction of Totteridge Lane and Longland Drive. He lost consciousness at the scene of the accident and was pronounced dead shortly thereafter. The driver was arrested at the scene, and later entered a plea of guilty by careless driving while under the influence of alcohol. 

John Mack was actually in London, not lecturing on aliens, but giving a talk on T. E. Lawrence. Perhaps he was aware of the importance of September 27th in the biography of Lawrence? After all, Mack wrote about the life of Lawrence. He must have known about the slaughter of Tafas. 

As author Nick Redfern observes in debunking the conspiracy theories that Mack was murdered, Mack "was an afternoon speaker at the T.E. Lawrence Society Symposium. Mack’s presentation was very well-received, to the extent that he was asked to give an additional, evening presentation, which he did. Dinner followed. Later that night, as he headed to the house in which he was staying in London, Mack was struck by a car and killed...He stepped out onto a crosswalk and was hit and killed...."

One can psychologically imagine Mack was walking back to his lodging, euphoric from the receipt of his presentations, and perhaps a little tried and in a jet-lag trance. Maybe he was even wondering about that very Lawrence of Arabia date? He then stepped out into traffic, in London. That's an important detail.

As Nick continues: 

There is another issue that may have relevance, one which I can relate to. It was September. It was night-time. It was London. It was busy. And John Mack was an American in England. I’m an Englishman who lives in America. When I moved to the United States, fifteen years ago, two of the very first things I had to do were (a) learn to drive on the opposite side of the road; and (b) take a US driving test. For those who may not know, whereas in the States we drive on the right, in the UK, it’s on the left.
Actually, getting accustomed to driving on the right was not the big challenge I thought it might be. Even after having driven on the left, in the UK, since the legal age of 17. In fact, it was surprisingly easy. However, there was one thing that took me a while to shake off. It was the instinct to look in the “UK direction” for oncoming traffic. And particularly so when crossing the roads in the small US town I first lived in, which was Littlefield, Texas. Since, in the UK, we drive on the left, that means you have to look to your right to see the oncoming traffic. And it’s the exact opposite in the US: the traffic comes at you on the right, so you turn your head to the left to see it approaching.

Dr. John Mack was 74 and lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was in London on September 27, 2004, a date so important to T. E. Lawrence for the "take no prisoners" killings he ordered on September 27, 1918, and on the same date September 27 the American edition of T. E. Lawrence's book was published, soon after Lawrence's death, in 1935. Mack was in England talking about Lawrence of Arabia. 

Only in recent years have London streets been marked with which way to "look." Too late for John Mack?