Subject: Roswell Item
Date: 14 Aug 93 06:20:00 GMT
Organization: FidoNet node 1:107/816.0 - The Wrong Num, Jersey City NJ


>From Letters To The Editor, May/June 1993, Volume 18, Number 3, IUR,
International UFO Reporter, Copyright 1993 by the J. Allen Hynek Center
for UFO Studies, 2457 West Peterson Ave., Chicago, IL 60659.

Roswell Matters

        For many months in 1992 I attempted to mediate the unfortunate
ongoing dispute between the two pairs of New Mexico crash investigators:
Kevin Randle and Don Schimtt on one side, Stan Friedman and Don Berliner
on the other.  I did so because of a strong conviction that their
quarreling was harmful to ufology and that with our limited resources
and the overriding importance of the Corona/Roswell case we need to
patch over our differences and work together.  I hoped at least to
persuade them to cool down the rhetoric and cooperate in important
areas.

        Though my effort was almost a complete failure - there were
plenty of inflated egos, pettiness, and illogic evident on both sides -
it was educational for me in many ways that are beyond the scope and
purpose of this letter.  I will try to take the lessons I learned and
put them to work in the future.  At the outset, I promised to go public
with my findings if I agreed with one or more of the principals on some
important point that was in dispute.  I took grievances and complaints
from both sides and asked the other side to reply.  Precious little was
resolved by this means, but I feel a duty to report on one item.

        Randle alleged that Friedman and others, aparently acting in
concert, had attempted to interfere with publication of the book _UFO
Crash at Roswell_ (then in preparation) by contacting the publisher,
Avon Books, making charges of plagiarism and generally impugning
Randle's character and integrity.  I asked Randle for documentation,
which he provided.  I asked Friedman for an explanation, and he never
replied.

        The documents show that in June and July 1990 Friedman, Bill
Moore, Jaime Shandera, and Whitley Strieber (who said he owned rights to
_The Roswell Incident_) barraged Avon Books with letters and phone calls
alleging plagiarism, and Friedman and Moore (before their falling out)
demanded to see the manuscript.  When they were rebuffed, Moore and
Shandera later escalated their attack and threatened a lawsuit.  A
letter dated August 17, 1990, accused Randle and Schmitt of a "willful
conspiracy" to steal their material, "copyright infringement,"
"slander," "fraud," and other acts.  Moore and Shandera then repeated
the threat in a letter dated March 15, 1991, and sent a copy to Avon.

        Other repeated _ad hominem_ attacks shall go unmentioned.  The
concerted effort to derail the Randle/Schmitt book is indefensible.


                                                Richard Hall
                                                Brentwood, Maryland




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