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.

Mothman Math: Dates, Disasters, and Deaths

Mothman: Evil Incarnate

Review by Andrew W. Griffin, here.

Review by Nick Redfern, here. 

"Mothman Math" is the underlying bits of twilight language that entwine numbers, prophecy, and the evil events that haunt the fabric of Mothman-related interactions. It involves a type of arithmetic that links to augury, the prophecies that have been tied to sightings of Mothman. Whether factual or not, a psychological pattern has emerged, almost in a folkloric sense, related to a specific numeral that routinely appears in the Mothman story.

"Prophecies," of course, are important parts of the Mothman tale, and the motion picture version of The Mothman Prophecies extended the "banshee" elements of the story. The movie was fiction-based on a true story. Some of its enhancements created greater fictions.

Dates, disasters, and deaths do dwell along the edges of this story. But we can be openly skeptical of many portions of what we are being told. 

As I said to Micah Hanks in 2010:

John Keel and I openly discussed with the media, and did our best to straighten out the record regarding the mythos that became the Chernobyl “Mothman” accounts.
The Chernobyl story, the Galveston Hurricane-Mothman tie-in, and other examples given in the 2002 movie were pure fiction....Right after the movie was released, various websites posted the Chernobyl/Mothman sightings as factual. But there is not one thread of evidence that any winged weirdies were witnessed before the Chernobyl accident.
It is a bit of movie fiction that has, unfortunately, moved into pseudo-factoid cryptozoology.

What facts are behind the fiction?

Beyond the synchrocinematic mischief, nevertheless, most people know there is Mothman math that authentically revolves around the number "13."

In my 2002 book, Mothman and Other Curious Encounters, I looked at how 13 months after the "first" sighting of Mothman on November 15, 1966, the "prophecy" implied in the title The Mothman Prophecies occurred. This happened when the Silver Bridge collapsed as the White House Christmas tree lights were illuminated on December 15, 1967.

The number 13 is considered an unlucky number in some countries. The end of the Mayan calendar's 13th Baktun was superstitiously feared as a harbinger of the apocalyptic 2012 phenomenon. Fear of the number 13 has a specifically recognized phobia, Triskaidekaphobia, a word coined in 1911. The superstitious sufferers of triskaidekaphobia try to avoid bad luck by keeping away from anything numbered or labelled thirteen. As a result, companies and manufacturers use another way of numbering or labelling to avoid the number, with hotels and tall buildings being conspicuous examples (thirteenth floor). It's also considered unlucky to have thirteen guests at a table. Friday the 13th has been considered an unlucky day. Source.

In my new 2017 book, Mothman: Evil Incarnate, I document how the number 13 plays a deeper role in the Mothman timeline. The first sighting, the collapse of the Silver Bridge, and when Mary Hyre died all are linked to the number 13 in the Mothman melodrama.

Thirteen months after the "first" Mothman sighting (Nov 15, 1966), the Silver Bridge collapsed (Dec 15, 1967). The only problem is that the Scarberry-Mallette encounter of November 15, 1966, was the "first" sighting that showed up in the media. There were other sightings that occurred before that one. But the November date is retained as the "first" and thus exactly 13 months to the day, the bridge came down. As I mention in my book (due out by the 50th anniversary of the Silver Bridge collapse - December 15, 2017), "Mothman math" figures in other links.

For instance, I extend this through my Mary Hyre entry (#47 of #100, in my section on the "The Mothman Death List") that I reproduce here from the new book:

The complex use of "Mothman math" as a yardstick for measuring these events, involving the number 13, has now (via comments online) been applied to the new Chicago Mothman sightings.

How should we look at the dates involved?

In my research on the most recent series of Chicago "Mothman" sightings, the first media-acknowledged 2017 encounter, report, and story is dated to April 7, 2017. But by July 2017, it was becoming commonly accepted the real (unpublished) initial sighting was on March 22, 2017.

Therefore, by traditional "Mothman math," the predicted 13-month date for a Chicago-based disaster event would be tied from the publicized "first date" to the one exactly 13 months later: May 7, 2018.

However, I would not wish to tempt fate with a series of elevator tours of the Chicago skyscrapers on April 22, 2018. As students of terrorism understand, double-number dates like 11 & 22 have been especially attractive to terrorists in the modern era.

Should we look at older dates linked to "Mothman sightings," and apply "Mothman math" to them, to test the auguric arithmetic?

Lon Strickler tells me that the first date for the 2011 little-known series of Chicago Mothman encounters was June 29, 2011.

What happened on July 29, 2012, thirteen months after the Chicago incident?
Tropical Storm Khanun killed 88 people and left 60,000 homeless in North Korea.

(Between the 2011 date and the technical start of the newest Chicago Mothman series on April 7, 2017, I must note a tragedy touched primary investigator Lon Stickler. He lost his wife of 33 years, Vanessa, who passed away on November 7, 2015, of cancer. It was exactly 17 months between November 7, 2015, and April 7, 2017.)

Another case to examine is what the late Mark Chorvinsky (who died July 16, 2005), editor of Strange Magazine, called the "Potomac Mothman." 

On July 27, 1944, at 8:30 pm, Father J. M. Johnson, pastor of St. John's Church in Hollywood, Maryland, saw in the sky "the outspread form of a huge man with wings."

What date would have been 13 months after the "Potomac Mothman" sighting? That would have been August 27, 1945.

What happened on August 27, 1945?
The Texas hurricane made landfall near Seadrift, Texas. The storm resulted in three fatalities and $20 million in damage.
The first United States Navy carrier plane touches down on Japanese soil, at Honshu/Atsugi Airdrome. The American occupation begins.

Will a disaster happen on May 7, 2018? Or on April 22, 2018? In Chicago? Elsewhere? A tornado? Only time will tell? But certainly, those who use "Mothman math" may be on the lookout.

+13+13+13+13+13+13+13+13+13+13+13+13+13+

The Mothman Wiki has an entry that reinforces this Mothman Math:

Some consider the Mothman legend to be associated with the number 13:
The Original Point Pleasant WV Mothman reports started in November 1966 and ended in December 1967 with the collapse of The Silver Bridge. This makes it a 13 month period of strange events.
The Silver Bridge Collapsed because of the faulty 13th steel pin eyebar.
The name Point Pleasant has 13 letters in it.
The most polluted pond in The TNT Area , where many of the sightings took place, was pond 13.
The Men In Black were reported to have been harassing witnesses and telling them not to talk about The Mothman. The phrase "The Men In Black" has 13 letters in it.
The name Mothman Museum has 13 letters in it.
The maiden name of Mothman witness Linda Scarberry is Linda McDaniel which contains 13 letters.
Linda Scarberry claimed to have seen the Mothman on her roof when she lived on 13th street.
The name of Mothman witness Steve Mallette has 13 letters in it.
The name of Mothman witness Kenneth Duncan has 13 letters in it.
The name of Mothman witness Mabel McDaniel has 13 letters in it.
The name of Mothman witness Katluyn Beaver has 13 letters in it.
Everett Wedge was with four other pilots during his sighting, the name of one was Ernie Thompson which contains 13 letters.
Faye Dewitt-Leport is said to have had her encounter with the Mothman at the age of 13.
Owner of the Mothman Diner and prominent Point Pleasant local, Carolin Harris, also has 13 letters in her name.
The 2017 documentary The Mothman of Point Pleasant was directed by Seth Breedlove, who has 13 letters in his name.
Both the phrase "West Virginian" and "The Ohio Valley" have 13 letters in them.
Artist Frank Frazetta did cover art for The Mothman Prophecies, he also has 13 letters in his name.
In relation to the Indrid Cold story, the term "Parkersburg WV" and "Mr. Derenberger" have 13 letters in them.
John Keel, the main investigator of the Mothman suffered a non-lethal heart attack and was hospitalized on Friday, October 13th 2006.
13 people died in The Mississippi River Bridge Collapsed in 2007 after a sighting of the Mothman.
The number 26 is divisible by 13, It is 13 x 2, a set of two thirteens:
There are 26 sightings on John Keel's Mothman sightings list printed in his book, Strange Creatures From Time And Space.
Mary Hyre died on February 15th 1970 which is 26 months after the The Silver Bridge Collapse.
Three Mothman sightings are said to have taken place on November 26th 1966. The witnesses are: Ruth Foster in St. Albans WV, Marvin Shock and Ewing Tilton in Cat Creek Ohio, Women and Thirteen year old child in Charleston WV. Source.

Obtain the above two books - numbered special, signed copies - by Loren Coleman, here.

The table of contents of Mothman: Evil Incarnate.

Thunderbirds: America's Living Legends of Giant Birds 

by Mark A. Hall, Introduction by Loren Coleman

Link to this podcast, here.

Leek is Keel Backwards: Mothman's Name Game and More Revealed

Richard Hatem, known for Grimm today and The Mothman Prophecies screenwriter, is directly responsible for bringing the story of the winged weirdie to theaters in 2002.

John A. Keel's book, The Mothman Prophecies, was first published in 1975. 

It is hard to believe today, but people forgot about the book. Then on October 1, 1991 ­ IllumiNet Press published the first reprint of The Mothman Prophecies in decades. It is this edition that screenwriter Richard Hatem "discovered" in an old book store, and decided to get someone interested in producing a movie from the book.

This happened in the spring of 1997. Struck by insomnia one night, Richard Hatem drifted into a Pasadena bookstore. A used copy of The Mothman Prophecies almost literally fell from a shelf into his hands, as if guided to him by a "library angel," as they are called. Hatem soon was engaged in reading Keel's book through the night. The next day, he contacted John Keel, and immediately began work on the screenplay that Lakeshore Entertainment bought in 1998.

The movie, steered by Richard Pellington, then known for his conspiracy thriller, Arlington Road, directed The Mothman Prophecies and it hit theaters in 2002.

For Halloween in 2013, Huff Post published a list of recommended Halloween horror movies, and included The Mothman Prophecies among their top 13.

The movie is a creepy one to re-view again, and I recommend everyone do so.

Watch for some of these strange errors and name game puns. For instance, the clock radio in character John Klein's motel room reads: 6:14. It's a biblical reference to John Chapter 6 verse 14, which reads, "This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world."

Continuity and geographic errors usually happen in movies. It is just curious to notice which ones pop up in this film.

In the film, you can see an obvious Pittsburgh landmark (the Masonic Temple, home of the Pitt Alumni Association) appearing in the background of scenes supposedly set in Washington, DC, and Chicago.

The Richard Gere character passes a sign for Maine Avenue as he leaves Washington, driving from Memorial Bridge to Interstate 95. Maine Avenue is in the opposite direction and there are no signs for Maine Avenue on any of the roads he could have taken to get to I-95.

During the Christmas tree lighting festivities, the door of the fire truck reads "Saxonburg" (a town near Kittanning in Pennsylvania where the scene was filmed) not Point Pleasant (where it is set).

On Klein's drive from Point Pleasant to Chicago, a glimpse of an exit sign for "New Kensington" can be seen. There is no "New Kensington" between West Virginia and Illinois, but there is one near Pittsburgh, where the movie was shot.

Released to theatres in 2002, “The Mothman Prophecies” follows John Klein, played by Richard Gere, as he leaves his Washington newspaper job to investigate sightings of winged creatures, referred to as “Mothman,” in a small West Virginia town. The film claims to be based on actual events that occurred in Point Pleasant, W.Va., between November 1966 and December 1967. Loren Coleman, founder and director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine, was a consultant during the production of “The Mothman Prophecies.” According to Coleman, the film, which is based on the 1975 book of the same name by parapsychologist John Keel, is a fictionalized narrative of actual events. “‘The Mothman Prophecies’ is based in reality, but the film is [director] Mark Pellington’s docudrama/fictionalized narrative motion picture of the events,” Coleman told HuffPost. “The characters … were created from parts of the personality and experiences of … Keel. Even the character names are formed via movie scriptwriters as puns, for example [Alexander] Leek [is] Keel backwards.”

Keel and me. Photo by Patrick Huyghe.

John Keel thoroughly enjoyed the film, and was touched to see his name on the screen. He never thought that would happen to him, he told his friends (like me). He also enjoyed the little bit of money he earned from the studio, although this late in his life, it didn't change his lifestyle. He was having major health issues with his eyes, and I was asked on board to help him out with the promotional publicity. John and I appear as the "Mothman experts" in Search for the Mothman, the documentary bundled with the deluxe versions of the film. But, of course, John was the man. It will always be his film, to me.

The writers had fun with the script, and the film is a series of in-jokes. For example, John Alva Keel was born Alva John Kiehle, and the first “John Keel” character in the movie is named “John Klein.” Alan Bates’ character has a similar name game.

In 2002, I wrote a discussion, “The Mothman Prophecies: ‘Gordon Smallwood’ and Some Strange Happenings,” of the name game in the film for a science fiction site.

Here are some excerpts:

In the new motion picture, The Mothman Prophecies ( based on the book of the same name by John Keel), chemical plant worker “Gordon Smallwood” (Will Patton), is deeply upset by late-night visits, he thinks, from reporter “John Klein” (Richard Gere). ”Smallwood” also believes that an entity named Indrid Cold is communicating with him, and this is slowly driving him, well, to turn a phrase, batty. ”Gordon Smallwood” is loosely based on contactee Woody Derenberger, who reported encounters with an Indrid Cold in West Virginia during the period of the Mothman sightings there in 1966-1967. This is all rather obvious, and the “Smallwood” and Woody link is not hard to see.
Right after the movie’s opening, Jerome “Jerry” Clark, author ofThe UFO Book, posted the following on an online UFO group: ”I wonder how many of you who’ve seen the movie caught the deep-inside-the-ufological-beltway use of the name ‘Gordon Smallwood’ for the Will Patton character?”
No one answered, but many were interested in learning what the in-joke was all about.
Jerry Clark explained: ”Gordon Smallwood is a pseudonym Gray Barker [the late West Virginia ufologist, and friend of John A. Keel] used for Quebec ufologist Laimon Mitris, who allegedly was visited by a man in black. See chapter 13 of They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers. Barker writes, ’I would like to know someone by the name of Gordon Smallwood. The name in itself sounds honest and reputable. If there are any Gordon Smallwoods reading this book, let them rest assured the name used here is an invention. But let them write to me for I would like to know people with such a name.‘”
The Mothman Prophecies movie has many layers of meanings and a few inside jokes: from the Fortean number game turning up in the night visits related by “Gordon Smallwood”, the selection of names (e.g. Leek = Keel), and even on-camera appearances. Notice the imposing figure of the bartender at the Marriott who helps the Richard Gere character with the television channels. That’s director Mark Pellington in his Alfred Hitchcock-like cameo.

Pellington was also the voice of Indrid Cold during the phone call.

Mark Pellington, furthermore, occasionally added his voice under the dialogue of characters who spoke on the phone with John Klein, throughout The Mothman Prophecies. Pellington said the intention was to create the illusion that Indrid Cold could be any one of those people, and that the entire situation and all the people might actually be in Klein's head.


On October 28, 2013, the film’s head writer, Richard Hatem, posted a tweet saying, “Thanks Loren – I knew guys like you would get the jokes.”