Keel was born in Hornell, New York, the son of a singer and bandleader. His parents soon divorced and Keel was raised by his grandparents in Perry, New York until his mother remarried.[1]
He was fascinated by magic from an early age and was known as "Houdini" by his friends. He loved reading about magic, humor, science, travel, and aviation. His first story was published in a magicians' magazine when he was twelve years old. At age fourteen he was determined to become a writer. He had a column in the Perry Herald named Scraping The Keel, he published a science fictionfanzine named The Lunarite and he routinely sent stories to magazines in New York. At the age of sixteen he had taken all of the science courses at his school and decided to quit school and write full time.[1][2][3]
Career
Early career as a writer and journalist
At seventeen he relocated to New York City to make a living as a writer. He lived in Greenwich Village and became the editor of a poetry magazine.[3] He worked as a freelance contributor to newspapers, scriptwriter for local radio and television outlets, and author of pulp articles such as "Are You A Repressed Sex Fiend?" [1]
Work for the US Army
He was drafted into the US Army during the Korean War. Because he had worked with radio and television he was assigned to the radio station American Forces Network at Frankfurt, Germany and started writing radio programs. Within one year he was the chief of productions for the network. When his two years of military service ended he was offered and accepted a civilian job for the Army.[3]
He claimed that while in the Army he was trained in psychological warfare as a propaganda writer.[4]
Writer and journalist
After his time with the military he was a foreign radio correspondent in Paris, Berlin, Rome and Egypt.[1]
At age 24 he resigned and traveled for four years around the Middle East and south-east Asia. He tried to find performers of the Indian rope trick, investigate fakirs and yogis and he even tried to track the Yeti. That journey became his first published book, Jadoo (1957)[1][3]
He wrote some novels using the pseudonym, Harry Gibbs.[2] In 1966 he wrote a fiction novel named The Fickle Finger of Fate. It sold an estimated 600,000 copies.[6]
In 1966 Playboy asked him to write an article about UFOs for the magazine, but his work was rejected and never printed. Keel had however become interested in the subject.[2] He claims to have traveled to 20 states and interviewed thousands of witnesses, several hundreds of them in depth. The material was used in his book Operation Trojan Horse.[4] He also made repeated visits to Point Pleasant, West Virginia, and investigated sightings that was the topic of his best known book, The Mothman Prophecies (1975).[2]
His interviews and thoughts concerning UFOs were published in magazines such as Flying Saucer Review, Flying Saucer, Saga and Saucer News.[7]
He was a technical advisor to the Library of Congress (1968-69), and special consultant to the office of Scientific Research and Bureau of Radiology (1968-71), before becoming a consultant to the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.[2]
Like contemporary 1960s researchers such as J. Allen Hynek and Jacques Vallée, Keel was initially hopeful that he could somehow validate the prevailing extraterrestrial visitation hypothesis. However, after a year of investigations, Keel concluded that the extraterrestrial hypothesis was untenable. Indeed, both Hynek and Vallée eventually had a similar conclusion. As Keel himself wrote:
I abandoned the extraterrestrial hypothesis in 1967 when my own field investigations disclosed an astonishing overlap between psychic phenomena and UFOs... The objects and apparitions do not necessarily originate on another planet and may not even exist as permanent constructions of matter. It is more likely that we see what we want to see and interpret such visions according to our contemporary beliefs.[1]
In his books UFOs: Operation Trojan Horse and The Eighth Tower Keel argues that a non-human or spiritual intelligence source has staged whole events during a long period of time in order to propagate and reinforce certain erroneous belief systems. For example, monsters, ghosts and demons, the fairy faith of Middle Europe, vampire legends, mystery airships in 1897, mystery aeroplanes of the 1930s, mystery helicopters, anomalous creature sightings, poltergeist phenomena, spheres of light, and unidentified flying objects; Keel conjectured that ultimately all of these anomalies are a cover for the real phenomenon.[full citation needed] He used the term "ultraterrestrials" to describe UFO occupants he believed to be non-human entities capable of assuming whatever form they desire.[10]
In Our Haunted Planet, Keel discussed the seldom-considered possibility that the alien "visitors" to Earth are not visitors at all, but an advanced Earth civilization, which may or may not be human. Interdimensional life is also considered.[citation needed]
Keel did not state any hypothesis about the ultimate purpose of the phenomenon other than that the UFO intelligence seems to have a long-standing interest with interacting with the human race.[11]
The book was widely popularized as the basis of a 2002 movie of the same name featuring Richard Gere, Will Patton, Laura Linney and Alan Bates.[12] Gere and Bates played two parts of Keel's personality. Bates's character is named "Leek," which is "Keel" spelled backwards. Gere's newspaper journalist character is named "John Klein," also a play on Keel's name.[citation needed]
Keel was pleased with director Mark Pellingtons interpretation of the book:
They got a lot of the stuff in the book into the movie, but with slight variations. /.../ I have no real complaints about it. It's Hollywood, and it's done well - that's my feeling about it.[13]
Criticism
In the May/June 2002 issue of Skeptical Inquirer, journalist John C. Sherwood, a former business associate of UFO researcher Gray Barker, published an analysis of private letters between Keel and Barker during the period of Keel's investigation. In the article, "Gray Barker's Book of Bunk," Sherwood reported finding significant differences between what Keel wrote at the time of his investigation and what he wrote in his first book about the Mothman reports, raising questions about the book's accuracy. Sherwood also reported that Keel, who was well known for writing humorous and outrageous letters to friends and associates, would not assist him in clarifying the differences.[14]
Paranormal experiences
Keel's friend Marc Coppola claimed that Keel "could look at people and tell exactly when they were going to die".[15]
Trivia
He once had a business card that read: John A. Keel, Not an Authority on Anything.[6]
In re-prints of his book Jadoo he is described as "a real-life Indiana Jones" by his publisher Barnes and Noble.[16]
Personal life
Keel did not cook. His Upper West Side local eatery was named Edgar's.[6]
One of his closest friends was fellow paranormal researcher Ivan T. Sanderson.[6]
Keel's apartment was "littered with literally tens of thousands of books in stacks, and papers piled unreachably high".[6]
^"John Keel". Sci-Fi Online. Archived from the original on October 25, 2007. Retrieved December 9, 2023.
^Sherwood, John C. (May 2002). "Gray Barker's Book of Bunk". skepticalinquirer.org. Center For Inquiry, Volume 26, No. 3 May / June 2002. Retrieved November 24, 2021.
^"John Keel, 1930-2009". The International Fortean Organization. Archived from the original on February 14, 2012. Retrieved December 9, 2023.
