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The UFO Casebook
Traces the history of UFO phenomena from the first modern sighting to the present, including reports of abductions by aliens, photographic evidence of UFOs, and up-to-date information on old sightings
- GenresNonfiction
255 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published September 1, 1989
3 people are currently reading
46 people want to read
About the author
Kevin D. Randle
144 books29 followersUfologist and historic fiction & science fiction writer.
Within the UFO community he is often regarded as one of the preeminent experts on the reported crash of a UFO near Roswell, New Mexico in July 1947.
A professional writer with more than 80 books to his credit, Randle is perhaps best known for his books about UFOs and the Roswell story.
Within the UFO community he is often regarded as one of the preeminent experts on the reported crash of a UFO near Roswell, New Mexico in July 1947.
A professional writer with more than 80 books to his credit, Randle is perhaps best known for his books about UFOs and the Roswell story.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 22, 2009
A bit out of date now, Randle's book is a very good overview of the state of UFO research since 1945 (up to about 1988). With a good, common sense view of the topic, much of what he presents is still very valid.
Highlighting some of the biggest UFO cases and government involvement for over 40 years Randle establishes a firm base of information that would be especially useful for anyone interested in diving into the topic.
Randle's forte is his common sense view toward the subject matter and his relentless details oriented research which uncovers aspects first thought to be mysterious and now are explainable.
Highlighting some of the biggest UFO cases and government involvement for over 40 years Randle establishes a firm base of information that would be especially useful for anyone interested in diving into the topic.
Randle's forte is his common sense view toward the subject matter and his relentless details oriented research which uncovers aspects first thought to be mysterious and now are explainable.
May 21, 2024
THE RESEARCHER AND AUTHOR LOOKS BROADLY AT MANY CASES
Kevin Douglas Randle (born 1949) is a prominent ufologist and author of science fiction, and a veteran of both the Vietnam War (Army), and the Iraq War (Iowa National Guard), as well as being a retired Captain of the U.S. Air Force.
He wrote in the Introduction to this 1989 book, “The Casebook is the result of twenty-five years of personal research into the phenomenon. I have, over the years, been a skeptic, a believer, a researcher, and an investigator. I have looked into hundreds of cases and traveled from one coast to the other looking for the answers. The end product is the book you are about to read… The purpose of [this book] is to examine some of the most important cases in the field. It is designed to provide the serious researcher with the best information available on the physical evidence cases, the photographic cases, and some of the more famous hoaxes, so that he or she can move on to other things... Researchers waste too much time duplicating each other’s work. It’s time to stop that and get on to other cases, other reports.” (Pg. 1, 4)
He observes, “As it stands now, the search for proof that the Roswell incident took place is still on… The significance of the Bluebook files is not in what we found, but in what we didn’t. With so many military people involved, there should have been a mention… This suggests that the reports and evidence went not to Project Sign, but somewhere else. Until all those secret government records are declassified, we’ll have to stumble in the dark.” (Pg. 11)
Of Frank Scully’s book ‘Behind the Flying Saucers,’ he notes, “we have a story that has been reported as a hoax over and over, until everyone accepts it as a hoax. Now it seems that there was some truth to the Scully stories. Like so many of the researchers who followed him, I found that Scully’s information wasn’t perfect and he made mistakes. It might be that he was a victim of the old intelligence gambit. When a leak is found, it is flooded with bad information to discredit all the information from it.” (Pg. 44-45)
He also comments, “So many of Frank Edwards’s stories are impossible to check. Edwards wrote from memory and sometimes his memory let him down.” (Pg. 46) Later, he adds, “It wasn’t that Edwards tried to deceive the public or wrote only to sell his books… Most of the time he didn’t go back to check his facts so that, in some cases, they ‘became better.’ He should have checked them, but he didn’t. His accounts of sightings are still good, with only minor details being incorrect, and, because Edwards wrote that way, it shouldn’t be used as evidence against all UFO researchers and writers.” (Pg. 117)
Of Donald Keyhoe [author of ‘Aliens from Space’], he comments, “It may do no good to belabor the obvious. How accurate is the rest of Keyhoe’s work, or [Otto] Binder’s work, it they can’t even get the spelling of the Air Force base right?... They have the data wrong, and they conveniently leave out the references to the fire warning light. They scramble the jet for an unidentified rather than have it already airborne, and say nothing about one UFO being identified and the landing at Griffiss… Walesville has nothing to do with flying saucers or hostility of aliens. It is an unfortunate accident that should never have appeared in any UFO material.” (Pg. 84-85)
He notes, “The Condon Committee had also dismissed the Ubatuba sample… The APRO scientists were also surprised by the Condon Committee statement that the Ubatuba sample did not come from a fabricated metal object. Their conclusions appeared in the APRO Bulletin, where they say that apparently the Condon Committee did not accept castings as fabricated metal objects. The story of the Ubatuba sample ends there… Unfortunately, we’ll probably never have a definitive answer now. After all these years, the last pieces of the sample have been lost.” (Pg. 97)
Of the Villas-Boas case, he concludes, “He wasn’t sophisticated enough to invent a story that avoids the pitfalls of a hoax. He didn’t have the education or knowledge to know how to fool the investigators… we almost have to conclude that it is the truth. But with a case like this, more evidence is needed.” (Pg. 103)
He argues, “Before the mid-1960s, there was little written about physical evidence from UFOs. Part of the reason was that the Air Force, with its restrictive categories, placed everyone who had seen a landed UFO in the crackpot file, because they would not believe that an extraterrestrial spacecraft would land on earth. Project Bluebook officers were willing to waste tax money chasing high-flying discs but refused to even look at early cases that involved landings. For this reason, many of the early physical evidence cases were rejected before there were any investigations of them and the evidence was lost before it was recovered.” (Pg. 113)
Of cattle mutilations cases, he recounts that Michael J. Douglas, the news director for WYOO radio, “knew that UFOs had nothing to do with the mutilations. He told serious UFO researchers that it was his belief that humans were responsible and would then go to great lengths to explain his reasons. When asked about ‘all the evidence’ he would tell of his investigations, and then leave the final conclusion to the individual.” (Pg. 151) Later, he adds, “The other APRO field investigators sent their reports to headquarters… they all came to the same basic conclusions. UFOs were not involved with the mutilations… ‘Most of the cattle deaths,’ wrote the editorial staff, ‘resulted from the usual causes… The missing parts were those usually attacked by small scavenging animals simply because they are the easiest to sink small teeth into; i.e., lips, tongues, ears, udders, etc.’” (Pg. 153)
He summarizes, “Now, ten years later, there are no reports of mutilations. No stories of UFOs killing cattle or cultist crazies running around the country in four-wheel drive vehicles and helicopters. This has gone the way of so many other ‘great’ mysteries. It was something created by the media, exploited by a few who wanted to get their names in print, and was something that had very little basis in fact. Now, finally, it has been laid to rest.” (Pg. 162)
He asks, “Did the Air Force really cover up their UFO investigations?... there was a cover-up. All the information, taken separately, isn’t enough to prove it, but when added together it becomes quite obvious. If there was no cover-up, then why were secret reports hidden in files for twenty years and why are so many of them missing today?... And more important, if there is no cover-up, why is there no mention of the Roswell incident in the files?... What this means is that somewhere along the line, someone lost several dozen classified reports about UFOs. This is something that would not be taken lightly by the military.” (Pg. 173)
He says, “I have learned that repeat abductions are not that unusual. Many have reported that the aliens put something up their noses…. People have come forward talking of a lifetime of abduction and contact with the aliens. This is one area of UFO investigation that needs more research. There is something going on and we don’t have much of a clue as to what it is. At some point someone is going to provide us with the answers, but until that happens, we’re stuck with interviewing the victims and trying to make some sense out of it.” (Pg. 203)
He concludes, “my investigations showed me that there was another, secret investigation---one classified higher than Bluebook. That’s no longer speculation. It’s a fact. The first evidence of it is the lack of a report about Roswell in the Bluebook files… The second evidence is the Kinross case… I know reports were filed from that time frame… but they never got to Bluebook… The third evidence is the gun camera films. We know they were taken…. There were references to them in Bluebook, but the files were not there… The question becomes, then, why would the Air Force cover it all up? People have suggested they were trying to avoid a panic… I was never happy with that answer… People were used to the idea and there were, literally, dozens of movies from Hollywood that dealt with the subject… Then came the story of the Roswell crash… The reasons for accepting it are many and varied. First and foremost is the fact that the names are named. There is Jesse Marcel… and a dozen others with firsthand knowledge... If I was to accept one crash, why not others. There was the Majestic Twelve paper that talked of a second crash… That document is questioned, and rightly so. But if it is authentic, it is dynamite. But there is no proof that it is authentic.” (Pg. 232-234)
This book will be of great interest for those looking for a BROAD (rather than “deep”) survey of many cases.
Kevin Douglas Randle (born 1949) is a prominent ufologist and author of science fiction, and a veteran of both the Vietnam War (Army), and the Iraq War (Iowa National Guard), as well as being a retired Captain of the U.S. Air Force.
He wrote in the Introduction to this 1989 book, “The Casebook is the result of twenty-five years of personal research into the phenomenon. I have, over the years, been a skeptic, a believer, a researcher, and an investigator. I have looked into hundreds of cases and traveled from one coast to the other looking for the answers. The end product is the book you are about to read… The purpose of [this book] is to examine some of the most important cases in the field. It is designed to provide the serious researcher with the best information available on the physical evidence cases, the photographic cases, and some of the more famous hoaxes, so that he or she can move on to other things... Researchers waste too much time duplicating each other’s work. It’s time to stop that and get on to other cases, other reports.” (Pg. 1, 4)
He observes, “As it stands now, the search for proof that the Roswell incident took place is still on… The significance of the Bluebook files is not in what we found, but in what we didn’t. With so many military people involved, there should have been a mention… This suggests that the reports and evidence went not to Project Sign, but somewhere else. Until all those secret government records are declassified, we’ll have to stumble in the dark.” (Pg. 11)
Of Frank Scully’s book ‘Behind the Flying Saucers,’ he notes, “we have a story that has been reported as a hoax over and over, until everyone accepts it as a hoax. Now it seems that there was some truth to the Scully stories. Like so many of the researchers who followed him, I found that Scully’s information wasn’t perfect and he made mistakes. It might be that he was a victim of the old intelligence gambit. When a leak is found, it is flooded with bad information to discredit all the information from it.” (Pg. 44-45)
He also comments, “So many of Frank Edwards’s stories are impossible to check. Edwards wrote from memory and sometimes his memory let him down.” (Pg. 46) Later, he adds, “It wasn’t that Edwards tried to deceive the public or wrote only to sell his books… Most of the time he didn’t go back to check his facts so that, in some cases, they ‘became better.’ He should have checked them, but he didn’t. His accounts of sightings are still good, with only minor details being incorrect, and, because Edwards wrote that way, it shouldn’t be used as evidence against all UFO researchers and writers.” (Pg. 117)
Of Donald Keyhoe [author of ‘Aliens from Space’], he comments, “It may do no good to belabor the obvious. How accurate is the rest of Keyhoe’s work, or [Otto] Binder’s work, it they can’t even get the spelling of the Air Force base right?... They have the data wrong, and they conveniently leave out the references to the fire warning light. They scramble the jet for an unidentified rather than have it already airborne, and say nothing about one UFO being identified and the landing at Griffiss… Walesville has nothing to do with flying saucers or hostility of aliens. It is an unfortunate accident that should never have appeared in any UFO material.” (Pg. 84-85)
He notes, “The Condon Committee had also dismissed the Ubatuba sample… The APRO scientists were also surprised by the Condon Committee statement that the Ubatuba sample did not come from a fabricated metal object. Their conclusions appeared in the APRO Bulletin, where they say that apparently the Condon Committee did not accept castings as fabricated metal objects. The story of the Ubatuba sample ends there… Unfortunately, we’ll probably never have a definitive answer now. After all these years, the last pieces of the sample have been lost.” (Pg. 97)
Of the Villas-Boas case, he concludes, “He wasn’t sophisticated enough to invent a story that avoids the pitfalls of a hoax. He didn’t have the education or knowledge to know how to fool the investigators… we almost have to conclude that it is the truth. But with a case like this, more evidence is needed.” (Pg. 103)
He argues, “Before the mid-1960s, there was little written about physical evidence from UFOs. Part of the reason was that the Air Force, with its restrictive categories, placed everyone who had seen a landed UFO in the crackpot file, because they would not believe that an extraterrestrial spacecraft would land on earth. Project Bluebook officers were willing to waste tax money chasing high-flying discs but refused to even look at early cases that involved landings. For this reason, many of the early physical evidence cases were rejected before there were any investigations of them and the evidence was lost before it was recovered.” (Pg. 113)
Of cattle mutilations cases, he recounts that Michael J. Douglas, the news director for WYOO radio, “knew that UFOs had nothing to do with the mutilations. He told serious UFO researchers that it was his belief that humans were responsible and would then go to great lengths to explain his reasons. When asked about ‘all the evidence’ he would tell of his investigations, and then leave the final conclusion to the individual.” (Pg. 151) Later, he adds, “The other APRO field investigators sent their reports to headquarters… they all came to the same basic conclusions. UFOs were not involved with the mutilations… ‘Most of the cattle deaths,’ wrote the editorial staff, ‘resulted from the usual causes… The missing parts were those usually attacked by small scavenging animals simply because they are the easiest to sink small teeth into; i.e., lips, tongues, ears, udders, etc.’” (Pg. 153)
He summarizes, “Now, ten years later, there are no reports of mutilations. No stories of UFOs killing cattle or cultist crazies running around the country in four-wheel drive vehicles and helicopters. This has gone the way of so many other ‘great’ mysteries. It was something created by the media, exploited by a few who wanted to get their names in print, and was something that had very little basis in fact. Now, finally, it has been laid to rest.” (Pg. 162)
He asks, “Did the Air Force really cover up their UFO investigations?... there was a cover-up. All the information, taken separately, isn’t enough to prove it, but when added together it becomes quite obvious. If there was no cover-up, then why were secret reports hidden in files for twenty years and why are so many of them missing today?... And more important, if there is no cover-up, why is there no mention of the Roswell incident in the files?... What this means is that somewhere along the line, someone lost several dozen classified reports about UFOs. This is something that would not be taken lightly by the military.” (Pg. 173)
He says, “I have learned that repeat abductions are not that unusual. Many have reported that the aliens put something up their noses…. People have come forward talking of a lifetime of abduction and contact with the aliens. This is one area of UFO investigation that needs more research. There is something going on and we don’t have much of a clue as to what it is. At some point someone is going to provide us with the answers, but until that happens, we’re stuck with interviewing the victims and trying to make some sense out of it.” (Pg. 203)
He concludes, “my investigations showed me that there was another, secret investigation---one classified higher than Bluebook. That’s no longer speculation. It’s a fact. The first evidence of it is the lack of a report about Roswell in the Bluebook files… The second evidence is the Kinross case… I know reports were filed from that time frame… but they never got to Bluebook… The third evidence is the gun camera films. We know they were taken…. There were references to them in Bluebook, but the files were not there… The question becomes, then, why would the Air Force cover it all up? People have suggested they were trying to avoid a panic… I was never happy with that answer… People were used to the idea and there were, literally, dozens of movies from Hollywood that dealt with the subject… Then came the story of the Roswell crash… The reasons for accepting it are many and varied. First and foremost is the fact that the names are named. There is Jesse Marcel… and a dozen others with firsthand knowledge... If I was to accept one crash, why not others. There was the Majestic Twelve paper that talked of a second crash… That document is questioned, and rightly so. But if it is authentic, it is dynamite. But there is no proof that it is authentic.” (Pg. 232-234)
This book will be of great interest for those looking for a BROAD (rather than “deep”) survey of many cases.
December 30, 2020
If you ever want definitive proof of aliens, you should not read a UFO book.
This book is primarily a documentation of research of alleged sightings and abductions and crashes. It goes over a hundred different characters whose reliability is questionable and provides little solid evidence besides the possibility of government coverup.
This book is primarily a documentation of research of alleged sightings and abductions and crashes. It goes over a hundred different characters whose reliability is questionable and provides little solid evidence besides the possibility of government coverup.
February 26, 2010
I like any book on UFO's.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews