The Lost Bill Moore Interviews 2: The Road to Roswell

Bill Moore has become a legendary figure in the history of UFO research. I was lucky to know and call him a friend almost 20 years. He was the author of two benchmark books that all of our listeners should have read by now: The Philadelphia Experiment (1979) and The Roswell Incident (1980.)  All subsequent Roswell books, festivals, etc would not exist today if Moore, Stan Friedman, and Charles Berlitz had not done the original research and writing, even if no one seems to want to acknowledge this fact.

This was the last interview he gave before leaving public life entirely and moving back to the East Coast in 2006.

After telling me he would be late, Bill arrived far earlier than expected and we launched into a discussion of the Alexander Litivenko polonium poisoning case. We were soon discussing his first contacts with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, which occurred in 1980 during book tours for Roswell. Moore corrected a misstatement that researcher Jerome Clark made about this period.

We then discussed a little-known incident involving a breach of Air Force base security in which Moore was involved with his research partner Jamie Shandera, which then led to some discussion about the history and methods of counterintelligence.

Moore recalled his first trips out to New Mexico to interview Roswell witnesses: He said that ten primary witnesses all said that they’d handled parts of a flying saucer, or at least something unearthly. He also recalled with some pain how his co-author Charles Berlitz changed and sensationalized Moore’s reports and data as he worked them into the manuscript.

We changed subjects and talked about possible occult elements in the Wizard of Oz, and humorous names Bill had come across in his research. Walter revealed that the son of Larry Fine (of Three Stooges fame) was an Air Force OSI agent. Walter also described (as much as he legally could) the history of Russian intelligence in the closed files of the FBI, which he saw as an agent. The balance of the show was filled with a discussion of other mysteries and a bit on Moore’s research and writing about on the origins of the Mormon faith.

As with many shows here, this was much more of a fun conversation than a strict interview, since I would never force Bill into any formalized discussion of subjects that most researchers would prefer. Nevertheless, there is much here for the seasoned UFO veteran to gain, if they will take the time to listen carefully.

The interview was recorded on December 10th of 2006.