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Case MJ-12
CASE MJ-12 Updated 2018 Recently Declassified Information Revealed for the First Time! It has been a matter of faith that had an alien spacecraft crashed outside of Roswell, New Mexico, in July 1947, that a committee of high-ranking government officials, military officers and leading scientists would be created to exploit the find. In 1982, it seemed that the name and personnel of that committee was leaked into the public arena in what came to be known as the Majestic-12 documents. After decades of research by some of the biggest names in the UFO field, tens of thousands of dollars spent, and some candid remarks by those who should have known the truth, we now have the definitive answer to the question, “Are these MJ-12 documents real?” That answer, complicated by the infighting inside the UFO community, hoaxes, lies, half-truths, and disinformation can be revealed. It isn’t as simple as originally thought. It isn’t as straight forward as originally thought. But with careful analysis, research, and clues picked up through government documents, interviews with high-level military officers, we do have the answer. This then, is the updated journey through the twisted paths that lead us into the strange world of MJ-12. At the end, is a truth that tells us about the conspiracy to keep the truth hidden from the public and one of the most astonishing parts of that journey is the attempts from inside the UFO community to lead us all down the wrong path.
- GenresNonfiction
Kindle Edition
First published December 1, 2002
4 people are currently reading
21 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 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 29, 2023
A PROMINENT UFOLOGIST GIVES REASONS FOR CALLING THE DOCS A ‘HOAX’
Author Kevin D. Randle wrote in the Introduction to this 2002 book, “We can say, without fear of contradiction, that the documents DO exist. The problem for researchers, historians, scientists, journalists, Ufologists is their authenticity. Are the MJ-12 documents… created by the government agency charged with the examination and the exploitation of the craft found outside Roswell? Or were the documents created by Ufologists, or hoaxers, as a way of establishing the reality of the crash? Further, if MJ-12 is a hoax but the Roswell UFO crash took place, wouldn’t we expect that some sort of oversight committee… to have been created? Can we find a way to learn about that without getting caught in the personal agendas of so many of the UFO researchers who are either proponents or opponents of these documents? Is there something we can do to separate the fact from the fiction?
“As many will know, I have been both proponent and an opponent of MJ-12. When the documents first surfaced in the public arena in mid-1980s, I had what I thought was a good reason for believing the documents to be authentic. But at the time, I didn’t know enough about the Del Rio UFO crash in 1950 to make an informed decision about the validity of these documents. Once I knew more about that, I had reason to believe that … one of the main MJ-12 documents---wasn’t as accurate as it should be. To me, this spelled H-O-A-X.” (Pg. 1-2)
He notes that “Attachment H was supposed to contain maps and photographs. While the maps would have been easy to fake, photographs---especially of the alien bodies, either in the field or being autopsied---would have been nearly impossible to forge. Had Attachment H been included, it would have gone a long way toward providing some corroboration for the parts of the document…” (Pg. 4)
He acknowledges, “Most of those writing about flying saucers [in the 50s/60s] or conducting research into UFO sightings stayed away from anything that hinted there might have been a UFO crash. One exception was journalist Frank Edwards. In his 1965 book. ‘Flying Saucers, Serious Business,’ he reported that something had been found outside of Roswell but the Air Force had quickly identified it as a balloon with a ‘pie tin’ tied to it. Nearly everything in Edwards’s short account was wrong except that a rancher had found the debris and it happened near Roswell. It was a mention of the case more than ten years before any serious research into it began.” (Pg. 28)
He argues, “the Project Mogul explanation for the debris recovery offered by the Air Force in 1994 does not cover this sort of event. In 1947… Mogul was highly classified.. the extraordinary efforts documented by the newspapers, or military activity in 1947, could have been intended to hide the classified nature of Mogul. The problem with that theory is that just two days later, on July 10, 1947, pictures of a Mogul launch were published in newspapers around the country. While the purpose of Mogul was classified, the equipment used and the balloon array trains being launched form the Alamogordo, New Mexico, area were not. In other words, had Mogul been the explanation, there would have been no reason to hide the recovered debris or the fact that the balloons were being launched. Nor would teams of military personnel have been guarding the sites holding people incommunicado on the base. Frankly, even in 1947, Mogul wasn’t that important.” (Pg. 40-41)
Returning to the MJ-12 documents, he explains, “there were many failed attempts at corroboration… nearly everyone who has served in the Army, Air Force, or Marines was mentioned in a series of books that were part of a personnel registry… The lieutenant’s name doesn’t appear anywhere in them… [Perhaps] the nature of his special intelligence assignment meant that his name wouldn’t appear in any of the registries. Possibly… I spent months following a lead, talking to people, trying to find the right handle. Had it paid off, then many questions would have been answered. Instead, everything came up negative, with excuses as to why I could never see the documentation or find the combination I needed. It was frustrating and, to me, smacked of the big con.” (Pg. 161-162)
He continues, “Yet, the lieutenant told me of a colonel who lived in Las Cruces…who had known President Kennedy personally and had a spectacular UFO sighting that included a glimpse of an alien creature… I met him in the parking lot of his business and we had a nice talk… He knew some people, was aware of some UFO stories, but it didn’t mean he’d seen the documents and photographs that he had claimed to have seen. And it certainly didn’t prove that he'd talked with a living creature from another world.” (Pg. 162-163)
He adds, “In relation to the MJ-12 documents, his testimony, if true, was devastating. The implication was that the Eisenhower briefing was fake, because it mentioned nothing about one of the beings surviving the crash. The Eisenhower briefing tells us that the bodies of four creatures were recovered, not more than four, and no survivor. It’s important to point out … that there would be no reason, if the document was authentic, for it to contain false information. Those creating it---Admiral Hillenkoetter and his staff---would assume that no one would ever see it other than President Eisenhower, and therefore there was no reason not to tell the truth. There could have been honest mistakes, of course, but forgetting that one of the creatures survived the crash is not an honest mistake. And getting the location of the crash site wrong is not an honest mistake. And, it might be useful to point out that Eisenhower, as Chief of Staff of the Army in 1947, already knew the information contained in the portions of the documents that we have. There would be no reason to create a highly classified briefing that contained nothing new for the President-elect. That fact argues against authenticity.” (Pg. 163)
He points out, ‘For me, however, the ‘smoking gun’ that proved the Eisenhower briefing a hoax was roscoe Hillenkoetter’s rank… In 1952, Hillenkoetter was not an admiral, but a rear admiral, the difference being the number of stars worn on the collar. An admiral wears four and Hillenkoetter wore but two. This might seem to be a trivial point, but it is not. Contrary to what MJ-12 proponents will say, this is not a mistake but Hillenkoetter would have made, it is a serious violation of military protocol. It’s not something that Dwight Eisenhower, one of the few men to achieve five-star rank, would ignore. It is the same as a captain claiming to be a lieutenant colonel, or a sergeant claiming to be an officer.” (Pg. 171-172)
Finally, he adds, “importantly, we have no links from the government to the MJ-12 documents. In all the searches that have been conducted---whether in the National Archives, military archives, university libraries, or private document collections---there has not been a single incident where a handwritten note, an authenticated document, or anything else has been found referring to MJ-12. Not a single incident. I asked Stan Friedman about this lack of provenance. In February 2001 he wrote, ‘Lack of provenance is worrisome…’ Yes, it is very worrisome, and it is a major flaw that has never been satisfactorily answered.” (Pg. 263)
He concludes, “I find the MJ-12 documents, all of them, to be flawed in very specific ways, and I believe all of them to be the result of hoax. I do not believe they represent disinformation, and the claim that they do is a feeble attempt to provide some kind of credibility for them. I believe the quicker that we reject the MJ-12 documents, the better off we’re going to be in our UFO research.” (Pg. 272)
This book will be ‘must reading’ for anyone seriously studying the MJ-12 documents.
Author Kevin D. Randle wrote in the Introduction to this 2002 book, “We can say, without fear of contradiction, that the documents DO exist. The problem for researchers, historians, scientists, journalists, Ufologists is their authenticity. Are the MJ-12 documents… created by the government agency charged with the examination and the exploitation of the craft found outside Roswell? Or were the documents created by Ufologists, or hoaxers, as a way of establishing the reality of the crash? Further, if MJ-12 is a hoax but the Roswell UFO crash took place, wouldn’t we expect that some sort of oversight committee… to have been created? Can we find a way to learn about that without getting caught in the personal agendas of so many of the UFO researchers who are either proponents or opponents of these documents? Is there something we can do to separate the fact from the fiction?
“As many will know, I have been both proponent and an opponent of MJ-12. When the documents first surfaced in the public arena in mid-1980s, I had what I thought was a good reason for believing the documents to be authentic. But at the time, I didn’t know enough about the Del Rio UFO crash in 1950 to make an informed decision about the validity of these documents. Once I knew more about that, I had reason to believe that … one of the main MJ-12 documents---wasn’t as accurate as it should be. To me, this spelled H-O-A-X.” (Pg. 1-2)
He notes that “Attachment H was supposed to contain maps and photographs. While the maps would have been easy to fake, photographs---especially of the alien bodies, either in the field or being autopsied---would have been nearly impossible to forge. Had Attachment H been included, it would have gone a long way toward providing some corroboration for the parts of the document…” (Pg. 4)
He acknowledges, “Most of those writing about flying saucers [in the 50s/60s] or conducting research into UFO sightings stayed away from anything that hinted there might have been a UFO crash. One exception was journalist Frank Edwards. In his 1965 book. ‘Flying Saucers, Serious Business,’ he reported that something had been found outside of Roswell but the Air Force had quickly identified it as a balloon with a ‘pie tin’ tied to it. Nearly everything in Edwards’s short account was wrong except that a rancher had found the debris and it happened near Roswell. It was a mention of the case more than ten years before any serious research into it began.” (Pg. 28)
He argues, “the Project Mogul explanation for the debris recovery offered by the Air Force in 1994 does not cover this sort of event. In 1947… Mogul was highly classified.. the extraordinary efforts documented by the newspapers, or military activity in 1947, could have been intended to hide the classified nature of Mogul. The problem with that theory is that just two days later, on July 10, 1947, pictures of a Mogul launch were published in newspapers around the country. While the purpose of Mogul was classified, the equipment used and the balloon array trains being launched form the Alamogordo, New Mexico, area were not. In other words, had Mogul been the explanation, there would have been no reason to hide the recovered debris or the fact that the balloons were being launched. Nor would teams of military personnel have been guarding the sites holding people incommunicado on the base. Frankly, even in 1947, Mogul wasn’t that important.” (Pg. 40-41)
Returning to the MJ-12 documents, he explains, “there were many failed attempts at corroboration… nearly everyone who has served in the Army, Air Force, or Marines was mentioned in a series of books that were part of a personnel registry… The lieutenant’s name doesn’t appear anywhere in them… [Perhaps] the nature of his special intelligence assignment meant that his name wouldn’t appear in any of the registries. Possibly… I spent months following a lead, talking to people, trying to find the right handle. Had it paid off, then many questions would have been answered. Instead, everything came up negative, with excuses as to why I could never see the documentation or find the combination I needed. It was frustrating and, to me, smacked of the big con.” (Pg. 161-162)
He continues, “Yet, the lieutenant told me of a colonel who lived in Las Cruces…who had known President Kennedy personally and had a spectacular UFO sighting that included a glimpse of an alien creature… I met him in the parking lot of his business and we had a nice talk… He knew some people, was aware of some UFO stories, but it didn’t mean he’d seen the documents and photographs that he had claimed to have seen. And it certainly didn’t prove that he'd talked with a living creature from another world.” (Pg. 162-163)
He adds, “In relation to the MJ-12 documents, his testimony, if true, was devastating. The implication was that the Eisenhower briefing was fake, because it mentioned nothing about one of the beings surviving the crash. The Eisenhower briefing tells us that the bodies of four creatures were recovered, not more than four, and no survivor. It’s important to point out … that there would be no reason, if the document was authentic, for it to contain false information. Those creating it---Admiral Hillenkoetter and his staff---would assume that no one would ever see it other than President Eisenhower, and therefore there was no reason not to tell the truth. There could have been honest mistakes, of course, but forgetting that one of the creatures survived the crash is not an honest mistake. And getting the location of the crash site wrong is not an honest mistake. And, it might be useful to point out that Eisenhower, as Chief of Staff of the Army in 1947, already knew the information contained in the portions of the documents that we have. There would be no reason to create a highly classified briefing that contained nothing new for the President-elect. That fact argues against authenticity.” (Pg. 163)
He points out, ‘For me, however, the ‘smoking gun’ that proved the Eisenhower briefing a hoax was roscoe Hillenkoetter’s rank… In 1952, Hillenkoetter was not an admiral, but a rear admiral, the difference being the number of stars worn on the collar. An admiral wears four and Hillenkoetter wore but two. This might seem to be a trivial point, but it is not. Contrary to what MJ-12 proponents will say, this is not a mistake but Hillenkoetter would have made, it is a serious violation of military protocol. It’s not something that Dwight Eisenhower, one of the few men to achieve five-star rank, would ignore. It is the same as a captain claiming to be a lieutenant colonel, or a sergeant claiming to be an officer.” (Pg. 171-172)
Finally, he adds, “importantly, we have no links from the government to the MJ-12 documents. In all the searches that have been conducted---whether in the National Archives, military archives, university libraries, or private document collections---there has not been a single incident where a handwritten note, an authenticated document, or anything else has been found referring to MJ-12. Not a single incident. I asked Stan Friedman about this lack of provenance. In February 2001 he wrote, ‘Lack of provenance is worrisome…’ Yes, it is very worrisome, and it is a major flaw that has never been satisfactorily answered.” (Pg. 263)
He concludes, “I find the MJ-12 documents, all of them, to be flawed in very specific ways, and I believe all of them to be the result of hoax. I do not believe they represent disinformation, and the claim that they do is a feeble attempt to provide some kind of credibility for them. I believe the quicker that we reject the MJ-12 documents, the better off we’re going to be in our UFO research.” (Pg. 272)
This book will be ‘must reading’ for anyone seriously studying the MJ-12 documents.
December 10, 2017
This book is supposed to be an in-depth study of the Majestic 12 documents. The book does give an analysis as to why the documents are most likely fake. The book needed a few things. First, it needed a better explanation as to what the MJ 12 documents were. This book feels like a sequel in which the reader needed to read the first book in order to understand this one. The book could have also used a glossary due to the large number of acronyms and military terms that were used. I wold only recommend this to people who want to know why the MJ 12 documents are fake. If you want to know what MJ 12 (supposedly) was I would read another book.
December 2, 2020
I found the book interesting would give it 4 stars except it was repetitive.
May 1, 2011
Kevin Randle has made a cottage industry out of being the world's foremost expert on the alleged UFO crash at Roswell, New Mexico. While his two books focusing entirely on the events surrounding one of the cornerstones of America's growing UFO culture (mythology?) are quite good and stand-up very well as fine examples of investigative work lacking from much of the field, his ancillary works tend to be far less focused ... and that's largely because he tries to draw virtually all topics associated to the history of UFOs back to those seminal events from 1947. It's almost as if the author dismisses the fact that those events -- to date -- have yet to be substantiated.
That said, CASE MJ-12 is an admirable attempt to explore the possible origins to literally thousands of pages of supposedly "declassified" evidence linking Roswell and other UFO events to an elite oversight committee long referred to as "Majestic 12" (or "Majik 12" or "Magic 12" or just "Magic," depending upon whose opinion you accept). Despite having only seen a "representative sampling" (Randle's term, not mine), he feels compelled and competent to pass judgment over an entire body of paperwork he hasn't examined, and this investigative leap undermines much of his prose.
The book reads as if written very quickly. In fact, there are several long passages that almost appear as 'cut and paste' work, interspersed throughout the tome; interestingly enough, this 'cut-and-paste' is Randle's prime argument against accepting any of the MJ-12 papers as "credible." After finishing the work, you'll really understand the man's appreciation of the word "provenance."
Sadly, Randle stumbles in the book's second half, venturing easily into territory all-too-familiar these days in the endeavors of Ufology; he spends a fair portion of text 'bashing' others in the field for their failure to reach the same conclusions he has. As he's concluded a handful of the MJ papers are fradulent, he believes everyone should. In this respect, his arguments are weak ... especially given the fact that the foundation of his assertion is predicated on the outcome of a 'word game' played with a retired military officer (Kaufman) who, admittedly, can neither confirm nor deny the said committee's existence.
Still, CASE MJ-12 is entertaining in its first half, when Randle is dealing with those MJ 12 papers he has reviewed, and this is definitely worth reading. In the latter half, he delves (or tries to) into the psychology associated to MJ-12, if such a secret committee existed, and what the political and/or social ramifications would've been. For those familiar with the events of Roswell, CASE MJ-12 makes for adequate reading. Randle's insistence on spending time recounting (and recounting and recounting!) the Roswell events sadly grounds the prose; instead, he could've engaged readers with his own speculative theories associated to UFO crash retrievals.
For reasons beyond logic, Randle also feels compelled to tack on an extra chapter -- an appendix dealing solely with a con man's hoax associated to a UFO crash in Africa. Perhaps Randle believed that, by presenting events so obviously fabricated, the thinner of his arguments would be strengthened, but that isn't the way truly inquiring minds really think.
That said, CASE MJ-12 is an admirable attempt to explore the possible origins to literally thousands of pages of supposedly "declassified" evidence linking Roswell and other UFO events to an elite oversight committee long referred to as "Majestic 12" (or "Majik 12" or "Magic 12" or just "Magic," depending upon whose opinion you accept). Despite having only seen a "representative sampling" (Randle's term, not mine), he feels compelled and competent to pass judgment over an entire body of paperwork he hasn't examined, and this investigative leap undermines much of his prose.
The book reads as if written very quickly. In fact, there are several long passages that almost appear as 'cut and paste' work, interspersed throughout the tome; interestingly enough, this 'cut-and-paste' is Randle's prime argument against accepting any of the MJ-12 papers as "credible." After finishing the work, you'll really understand the man's appreciation of the word "provenance."
Sadly, Randle stumbles in the book's second half, venturing easily into territory all-too-familiar these days in the endeavors of Ufology; he spends a fair portion of text 'bashing' others in the field for their failure to reach the same conclusions he has. As he's concluded a handful of the MJ papers are fradulent, he believes everyone should. In this respect, his arguments are weak ... especially given the fact that the foundation of his assertion is predicated on the outcome of a 'word game' played with a retired military officer (Kaufman) who, admittedly, can neither confirm nor deny the said committee's existence.
Still, CASE MJ-12 is entertaining in its first half, when Randle is dealing with those MJ 12 papers he has reviewed, and this is definitely worth reading. In the latter half, he delves (or tries to) into the psychology associated to MJ-12, if such a secret committee existed, and what the political and/or social ramifications would've been. For those familiar with the events of Roswell, CASE MJ-12 makes for adequate reading. Randle's insistence on spending time recounting (and recounting and recounting!) the Roswell events sadly grounds the prose; instead, he could've engaged readers with his own speculative theories associated to UFO crash retrievals.
For reasons beyond logic, Randle also feels compelled to tack on an extra chapter -- an appendix dealing solely with a con man's hoax associated to a UFO crash in Africa. Perhaps Randle believed that, by presenting events so obviously fabricated, the thinner of his arguments would be strengthened, but that isn't the way truly inquiring minds really think.
September 14, 2011
Case MJ-12 is a good book. I read it when I was about 16 or 17 years old though, during a time when I was heavily intrigued by the idea of extraterrestrials, UFO's, and the paranormal. MJ-12 is extremely descriptive. Facts after facts come are thrown at you but then Randle manages to tell some interesting narratives of documented close encounters. These narratives were what kept me reading through the more bland factual sections. If you are a skeptic or a believer in the paranormal I would have to recommend you rent this book from your local library and give it a try. At least, if the stories are not at all true, they still make for an intense read.
July 2, 2016
A fascinating read. Kevin Randle brings a healthy dose of skepticism, packed with facts, to the conversation of the MJ-12 documents. With his critical eye and in-depth knowledge he deconstructs some major concerns that too many in the UFO community are willing to overlook in their zeal to accept these documents of proof that MJ-12 exists. Makes a compelling argument for a secret committee that would have existed to investigate a potential downed UFO, but at the same time making the argument that MJ-12 isn't that organization. Well worth a read for anybody remotely interested in this topic.
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