Paul Bennewitz
Encyclopedia
Paul Bennewitz was an American
businessman who played a major role in shaping the development of UFO Conspiracies
since the 1980s. After uncovering secret U.S. Air Force intelligence projects, Bennewitz interpreted the evidence as proof of extraterrestrial life
on Earth and a cover up
of unidentified flying object
evidence, and became the subject of an extended disinformation
campaign by Air Force intelligence officers. Much of the disinformation submitted to Bennewitz has since filtered into broader conspiracy theory.
. Instead, he focused his energies towards Thunder Scientific Corporation, a company which manufactured high-altitude testing equipment mostly for use at Kirtland Air Force Base
.
For many years, Bennewitz had been interested in UFOs, and had conducted his own investigations into the subject. He became convinced that the so-called Cattle mutilation
s were due to aliens after he met Myrna Hansen, who was hypnotized
by University of Wyoming
psychologist R. Leo Sprinkle
. Under hypnosis
, Hansen offered a detailed account of being kidnapped by aliens and taken to an underground base in what she thought was New Mexico
. There, Hansen says, she saw many liquid-filled vats containing portions of cattle and human remains. (Bennewitz would later accuse Sprinkle of being a CIA
agent, and have nothing more to do with him).
Based on this and other evidence, Bennewitz claimed to have uncovered the fact that alien
s were controlling humans through electromagnetic devices, and furthermore claimed that UFOs were regularly flying near Kirtland and the nearby Manzano Nuclear Weapons Storage Facility and Coyote Canyon Test Area. He provided photos of an alleged UFO flying near Coyote Canyon at Kirtland Air Force Base
.
After concluding that aliens were in fact active on Earth, Bennewitz detailed his assertions to the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization
, who regarded him as a deluded
paranoid
. He then wrote to Air Force Sergeant Richard C. Doty in October 1980 and reported his various claims. Realising that Bennewitz had, as James Mosely writes, "grossly misinterpreted" the information from some "supposedly secure communications systems," Kirtland AFB authorities sent Doty to investigate. http://www.martiansgohome.com/smear/v47/ss000615.htm#bennewitz
A few days after receiving his letter, Doty and Air Force scientist Jerry Miller interviewed Bennewitz at his home. He showed them his elaborate equipment setup designed to photograph, film and otherwise monitor the supposed UFOs.
One of the curiosities of the case is that Bennewitz seems to have photographed some genuinely unexplained aerial phenomena: Clark cites an Air Force memorandum released via the Freedom of Information Act, which reports, "after analyzing the data
collected by Dr. BENNEWITZ, Mr. MILLER related the evidence clearly shows some type of unidentified aerial objects were caught on film; however, no conclusion could be made whether these objects pose a threat to the Manzano/Coyote Canyon areas." (Clark 1998, 146)
Bennewitz was invited to Kirtland AFB on November 10, 1980, to present his findings to a small conference of Air Force officers and scientists. One week later, writes Clark, Air Force officials told Bennewitz they would not be investigating his evidence any further.
For most of the 1980s, Doty and/or ufologist William Moore would relate mostly spurious information to Bennewitz as part of a disinformation
campaign designed to distract him from secret military projects at Kirtland. The result was that, over the years, Bennewitz grew ever more paranoid
, and his health deteriorated so badly that he had a nervous breakdown
.
Bennewitz's stories were later absorbed into the conspiracy investigated by Danny Casolaro
; the alleged Dulce Base
would later find a life of its own in conspiracy lore. Bennewitz provided aerial photographs of what he claimed was an alien aircraft that crashed near the alleged Dulce Base which fueled the lore. An alien craft was never found at the suspected crash site. Investigators did find evidence that something did crash in the area but they were never able to confirm the story by Bennewitz claiming that it was an alien craft. The photos taken by Bennewitz have notes attached to them written by Bennewitz claiming that certain objects and alien beings are in the photos. These photos are difficult to view and they do not provide enough detail to verify or deny the story. This has fueled the lore of the alleged Dulce Base
.
held their 1989 annual convention in Las Vegas, Nevada
, on July 1, 1989.
Ufologist William Moore was scheduled as the main speaker, and he generated controversy even before his appearance: He refused to submit his paper for review prior to the convention, and also announced that he would not answer any follow-up questions as was common practice. Unlike most of the convention's attendees, Moore did not stay at the same hotel that was hosting the convention.
When he spoke, Moore said that he and others had been part of an elaborate, long-term disinformation
campaign begun primarily to discredit Paul Bennewitz: "My role in the affair ... was primarily that of a freelancer providing information on Paul's (Bennewitz) current thinking and activities." (Clark, 1998, 163) Air Force Sergeant Richard C. Doty was also involved, said Moore, though Moore thought Doty was "simply a pawn in a much larger game, as was I." (Clark, 1998, 163) One of their goals, Moore said, was to disseminate information and watch as it was passed from person to person in order to study how information was circulated in UFO enthusiast subcultures. Moore further reported that "he played a part in having Bennewitz involuntarily committed to the New Mexico State
Mental Hospital on three separate occasions."http://www.skepticfiles.org/ufo1/mthly2do.htm
Moore said that he "was in a rather unique position" in the disinformation campaign: "judging by the positions of the people I knew to be directly involved in it, [the disinformation] definitely had something to do with national security. There was no way I was going to allow the opportunity to pass me by ... I would play the disinformation game, get my hands dirty just often enough to lead those directing the process into believing I was doing what they wanted me to do, and all the while continuing to burrow my way into the matrix so as to learn as much as possible about who was directing it and why."(Clark, 1998, 164)
Once he finished the speech, Moore immediately left the hotel. He left Las Vegas that same night.
Moore's claims sent shock waves through the small, tight-knit UFO community, which remains divided as to the reliability of his assertions.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
businessman who played a major role in shaping the development of UFO Conspiracies
UFO conspiracy theory
A UFO conspiracy theory is any one of many often overlapping conspiracy theories which argue that evidence of the reality of unidentified flying objects is being suppressed by various governments around the world...
since the 1980s. After uncovering secret U.S. Air Force intelligence projects, Bennewitz interpreted the evidence as proof of extraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...
on Earth and a cover up
Cover Up
Cover Up is an American action/adventure television series that aired for one season on CBS from September 22, 1984 to April 6, 1985. Created by Glen A. Larson, the series stars Jennifer O'Neill, Jon-Erik Hexum, Antony Hamilton, and Richard Anderson....
of unidentified flying object
Unidentified flying object
A term originally coined by the military, an unidentified flying object is an unusual apparent anomaly in the sky that is not readily identifiable to the observer as any known object...
evidence, and became the subject of an extended disinformation
Disinformation
Disinformation is intentionally false or inaccurate information that is spread deliberately. For this reason, it is synonymous with and sometimes called black propaganda. It is an act of deception and false statements to convince someone of untruth...
campaign by Air Force intelligence officers. Much of the disinformation submitted to Bennewitz has since filtered into broader conspiracy theory.
Overview
Bennewitz had stopped his schooling when he had nearly received a Ph.D. in physicsPhysics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
. Instead, he focused his energies towards Thunder Scientific Corporation, a company which manufactured high-altitude testing equipment mostly for use at Kirtland Air Force Base
Kirtland Air Force Base
Kirtland Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located in the southeast quadrant of the Albuquerque, New Mexico urban area, adjacent to the Albuquerque International Sunport. The base was named for the early Army aviator Col. Roy C. Kirtland...
.
For many years, Bennewitz had been interested in UFOs, and had conducted his own investigations into the subject. He became convinced that the so-called Cattle mutilation
Cattle mutilation
Cattle mutilation is the apparent killing and mutilation of cattle under unusual or anomalous circumstances...
s were due to aliens after he met Myrna Hansen, who was hypnotized
Hypnosis
Hypnosis is "a trance state characterized by extreme suggestibility, relaxation and heightened imagination."It is a mental state or imaginative role-enactment . It is usually induced by a procedure known as a hypnotic induction, which is commonly composed of a long series of preliminary...
by University of Wyoming
University of Wyoming
The University of Wyoming is a land-grant university located in Laramie, Wyoming, situated on Wyoming's high Laramie Plains, at an elevation of 7,200 feet , between the Laramie and Snowy Range mountains. It is known as UW to people close to the university...
psychologist R. Leo Sprinkle
R. Leo Sprinkle
Ronald Leo Sprinkle is an American psychologist. He studied at the University of Colorado and earned his Ph.D. at the University of Missouri....
. Under hypnosis
Hypnosis
Hypnosis is "a trance state characterized by extreme suggestibility, relaxation and heightened imagination."It is a mental state or imaginative role-enactment . It is usually induced by a procedure known as a hypnotic induction, which is commonly composed of a long series of preliminary...
, Hansen offered a detailed account of being kidnapped by aliens and taken to an underground base in what she thought was New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
. There, Hansen says, she saw many liquid-filled vats containing portions of cattle and human remains. (Bennewitz would later accuse Sprinkle of being a CIA
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
agent, and have nothing more to do with him).
Based on this and other evidence, Bennewitz claimed to have uncovered the fact that alien
Extraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...
s were controlling humans through electromagnetic devices, and furthermore claimed that UFOs were regularly flying near Kirtland and the nearby Manzano Nuclear Weapons Storage Facility and Coyote Canyon Test Area. He provided photos of an alleged UFO flying near Coyote Canyon at Kirtland Air Force Base
Kirtland Air Force Base
Kirtland Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located in the southeast quadrant of the Albuquerque, New Mexico urban area, adjacent to the Albuquerque International Sunport. The base was named for the early Army aviator Col. Roy C. Kirtland...
.
After concluding that aliens were in fact active on Earth, Bennewitz detailed his assertions to the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization
Aerial Phenomena Research Organization
The Aerial Phenomena Research Organization was a UFO research group started in 1952 by Jim and Coral Lorenzen.The group, which was based in Tucson, Arizona but had many state branches, remained active until 1988....
, who regarded him as a deluded
Delusion
A delusion is a false belief held with absolute conviction despite superior evidence. Unlike hallucinations, delusions are always pathological...
paranoid
Paranoia
Paranoia [] is a thought process believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of irrationality and delusion. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy concerning a perceived threat towards oneself...
. He then wrote to Air Force Sergeant Richard C. Doty in October 1980 and reported his various claims. Realising that Bennewitz had, as James Mosely writes, "grossly misinterpreted" the information from some "supposedly secure communications systems," Kirtland AFB authorities sent Doty to investigate. http://www.martiansgohome.com/smear/v47/ss000615.htm#bennewitz
A few days after receiving his letter, Doty and Air Force scientist Jerry Miller interviewed Bennewitz at his home. He showed them his elaborate equipment setup designed to photograph, film and otherwise monitor the supposed UFOs.
One of the curiosities of the case is that Bennewitz seems to have photographed some genuinely unexplained aerial phenomena: Clark cites an Air Force memorandum released via the Freedom of Information Act, which reports, "after analyzing the data
Data
The term data refers to qualitative or quantitative attributes of a variable or set of variables. Data are typically the results of measurements and can be the basis of graphs, images, or observations of a set of variables. Data are often viewed as the lowest level of abstraction from which...
collected by Dr. BENNEWITZ, Mr. MILLER related the evidence clearly shows some type of unidentified aerial objects were caught on film; however, no conclusion could be made whether these objects pose a threat to the Manzano/Coyote Canyon areas." (Clark 1998, 146)
Bennewitz was invited to Kirtland AFB on November 10, 1980, to present his findings to a small conference of Air Force officers and scientists. One week later, writes Clark, Air Force officials told Bennewitz they would not be investigating his evidence any further.
For most of the 1980s, Doty and/or ufologist William Moore would relate mostly spurious information to Bennewitz as part of a disinformation
Disinformation
Disinformation is intentionally false or inaccurate information that is spread deliberately. For this reason, it is synonymous with and sometimes called black propaganda. It is an act of deception and false statements to convince someone of untruth...
campaign designed to distract him from secret military projects at Kirtland. The result was that, over the years, Bennewitz grew ever more paranoid
Paranoia
Paranoia [] is a thought process believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of irrationality and delusion. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy concerning a perceived threat towards oneself...
, and his health deteriorated so badly that he had a nervous breakdown
Nervous breakdown
Mental breakdown is a non-medical term used to describe an acute, time-limited phase of a specific disorder that presents primarily with features of depression or anxiety.-Definition:...
.
Bennewitz's stories were later absorbed into the conspiracy investigated by Danny Casolaro
Danny Casolaro
Joseph Daniel Casolaro was an American freelance writer who came to public attention in 1991 when he was found dead in a bathtub in room 517 of the Sheraton Hotel in Martinsburg, West Virginia, his wrists slashed 10–12 times...
; the alleged Dulce Base
Dulce Base
Dulce Base is the unofficial name for an alleged secret underground facility under the Archuleta Mesa in Dulce, New Mexico, United States.Paul Bennewitz, employed at a filtration manufacturer with government contracts was the first to raise claims of a secret base in New Mexico.-In Television:The...
would later find a life of its own in conspiracy lore. Bennewitz provided aerial photographs of what he claimed was an alien aircraft that crashed near the alleged Dulce Base which fueled the lore. An alien craft was never found at the suspected crash site. Investigators did find evidence that something did crash in the area but they were never able to confirm the story by Bennewitz claiming that it was an alien craft. The photos taken by Bennewitz have notes attached to them written by Bennewitz claiming that certain objects and alien beings are in the photos. These photos are difficult to view and they do not provide enough detail to verify or deny the story. This has fueled the lore of the alleged Dulce Base
Dulce Base
Dulce Base is the unofficial name for an alleged secret underground facility under the Archuleta Mesa in Dulce, New Mexico, United States.Paul Bennewitz, employed at a filtration manufacturer with government contracts was the first to raise claims of a secret base in New Mexico.-In Television:The...
.
Disinformation claims
The Mutual UFO NetworkMutual UFO Network
The Mutual UFO Network is an American non-profit organization that investigates cases of reported UFO sightings. It is one of the oldest and largest UFO-investigative organizations in the United States....
held their 1989 annual convention in Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
, on July 1, 1989.
Ufologist William Moore was scheduled as the main speaker, and he generated controversy even before his appearance: He refused to submit his paper for review prior to the convention, and also announced that he would not answer any follow-up questions as was common practice. Unlike most of the convention's attendees, Moore did not stay at the same hotel that was hosting the convention.
When he spoke, Moore said that he and others had been part of an elaborate, long-term disinformation
Disinformation
Disinformation is intentionally false or inaccurate information that is spread deliberately. For this reason, it is synonymous with and sometimes called black propaganda. It is an act of deception and false statements to convince someone of untruth...
campaign begun primarily to discredit Paul Bennewitz: "My role in the affair ... was primarily that of a freelancer providing information on Paul's (Bennewitz) current thinking and activities." (Clark, 1998, 163) Air Force Sergeant Richard C. Doty was also involved, said Moore, though Moore thought Doty was "simply a pawn in a much larger game, as was I." (Clark, 1998, 163) One of their goals, Moore said, was to disseminate information and watch as it was passed from person to person in order to study how information was circulated in UFO enthusiast subcultures. Moore further reported that "he played a part in having Bennewitz involuntarily committed to the New Mexico State
New Mexico State University
New Mexico State University at Las Cruces , is a major land-grant university in Las Cruces, New Mexico, United States...
Mental Hospital on three separate occasions."http://www.skepticfiles.org/ufo1/mthly2do.htm
Moore said that he "was in a rather unique position" in the disinformation campaign: "judging by the positions of the people I knew to be directly involved in it, [the disinformation] definitely had something to do with national security. There was no way I was going to allow the opportunity to pass me by ... I would play the disinformation game, get my hands dirty just often enough to lead those directing the process into believing I was doing what they wanted me to do, and all the while continuing to burrow my way into the matrix so as to learn as much as possible about who was directing it and why."(Clark, 1998, 164)
Once he finished the speech, Moore immediately left the hotel. He left Las Vegas that same night.
Moore's claims sent shock waves through the small, tight-knit UFO community, which remains divided as to the reliability of his assertions.