Stanton Friedman -- The Friedman-Moore Collaboration and the 1980 Roswell Book
Stanton Friedman -- The Friedman-Moore Collaboration and the 1980 Roswell Book
[edit | edit source]How They Met
[edit | edit source]William Leonard Moore was a UFO researcher who had been independently investigating unusual cases when he learned of Friedman's 1978 Marcel interview. Moore contacted Friedman, and the two began sharing research and working jointly on the Roswell case. Their collaboration produced "The Roswell Incident" -- the first book specifically about the July 1947 events -- published in 1980 by Grosset and Dunlap.
"The Roswell Incident" (1980)
[edit | edit source]| Feature | Detail |
|---|---|
| Full title | The Roswell Incident |
| Authors | Charles Berlitz and William L. Moore (Friedman's name did not appear on the cover as he had an existing book contract with another publisher; he contributed substantially to the research) |
| Published | 1980; Grosset and Dunlap |
| Significance | The first book-length treatment of the Roswell Incident; introduced the case to a national audience |
| Content | Drew primarily on the Jesse Marcel interview; presented additional witnesses Moore and Friedman had located; argued that the recovered object was an ET spacecraft |
Stanton Friedman's role in the book is a matter of some historical complexity. He conducted much of the original research, including the foundational Marcel interview, but his name did not appear as co-author due to a pre-existing publishing agreement. The book was commercially packaged with Charles Berlitz's name prominent -- Berlitz had established a reputation for popular mystery books with "The Bermuda Triangle."
The Working Relationship
[edit | edit source]Friedman and Moore collaborated productively in the late 1970s and early 1980s, sharing witnesses, documents, and research strategies. Moore was particularly active in locating former military personnel and witnesses. Both men were committed to pursuing the case rigorously.
The Break
[edit | edit source]The collaboration between Friedman and Moore ended acrimoniously following Moore's 1989 public admission at a MUFON symposium that he had been working as an informant for government agents (whom he called "the Falcon" and other bird code names) and had participated in deliberate disinformation operations against other UFO researchers -- specifically against Paul Bennewitz, whom Moore helped psychologically destabilise by feeding him false information about alien activities.
This admission devastated Moore's standing in the UFO research community and had specific implications for the Roswell research he had conducted:
- If Moore was capable of deliberate disinformation against other researchers, the reliability of his research methodology was called into question
- Some witnesses Moore had located might have been influenced by Moore's government connections
- The MJ-12 documents, with which both Moore and Friedman had been involved, came under renewed scrutiny given Moore's admitted willingness to work with government agents
Friedman separated himself publicly from Moore after the admission, though their Roswell work through 1989 was already done. The Roswell case Friedman built was primarily his own work; Moore's contamination of his own credibility did not invalidate the foundational Marcel interview or the physical evidence of the press release and retraction.
