Encounters: The UFO Phenomenon, Exposed!/Encounters - The UFO Phenomenon, Exposed (1995).iso/misc2/misc027.txt

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Date prepared: 09/03/93
Contributed by: Don Ecker/ UFO Magazine

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The Guy Kirkwood/Mel Noel Story
by Don Ecker

In 1988, a tremendously important book was published. "*Above Top
Secret" William Morrow and Co. copyright 1988, written by British
author Timothy Good. Considered one of the top 10 books to
inhabit any UFO aficionado's library, Good's book is
considered one of the most important UFO research tools in the
last 10 to 20 years. Good detailed UFO events, incidents and
quotes from military and political luminaries world wide. In
section III of *Above Top Secret, chapter 11, Good presented the
story of an alleged United States Air Force interceptor pilot Lt.
Mel Noel. "Mel Noel" (pseudonym) was twenty years old when he was
assigned to a reserve squadron at Lowry AFB, Colorado, and
selected for special photo reconnaissance missions to film UFOs."
Further into the story Good quoted Noel/Kirkwood on the
parameters of the mission to photograph the overflights of UFOs
in the area of Utah and Idaho. Good stated that Noel told him
"The briefings also included the showing of several hours of movie
films that had been taken by military pilots, and hundreds of
still photographs, many of which had been confiscated from
civilians."  If true this is the first verifiable account of a
former military pilot to break ranks with oaths of secrecy and
recount military pursuits of formations of UFOs. What is the
proof?

UFO Magazine first met Guy Kirkwood while giving a lecture in San
Diego in 1990. A very personable and friendly man, Kirkwood
exudes charm and wit. A true raconteur, Kirkwood can entrance an
audience for hours with tales of Air Force daring do, the early
(60s) years of saucer searching, all the while speaking of people
he knew that were making a splash in the field. Kirkwood is
friends with Gordon Cooper, one of the original Mercury 7
astronauts. John Keel mentioned Noel/Kirkwood in his *Disneyland
of the Gods, AMOK Press copyright 1988. Describing an incident in
the chapter titled "A Short history of Boobery" Keel was speaking
of "well financed hoaxers". According to Keel "One of the most
outstanding examples took place in 1966, when a handsome young
man in expensive clothes suddenly appeared in New York City,
accompanied by two stunning young ladies. They checked into a
luxury hotel and then Mel Noel (that is the name he used)
systematically visited all the leading magazines and newspapers.
He was signing reporters up for a trip into outer space." Keel
then said "According to Mr. Noel, a flying saucer was scheduled
to land on the set of the Jackie Gleason television show in
Florida. Anyone who wanted to go aboard had to apply for a space
passport." At that time, it was not very well known that Gleason
was a UFO "true believer", and according to Keel he even
suspected that Gleason may have been financing Noel. Later when
UFO questioned Noel/Kirkwood he stated that Keel was mistaken.
Noel said "During that time period I was involved with a group of
people in Mexico. I had been invited to speak before a very large
group of very influential Mexican businessmen, and then was
invited to meet an Italian named Genovese whose brother had
worked with Marconi prior to WW II."

According to the story Noel/Kirkwood told, this brother of the
mysterious Mr. Genovese had been part of a team working with
Marconi and had developed a "death ray" that the Italian dictator
Benito Mussolini saw demonstrated, and of course Mussolini wanted
it. When Marconi refused, he ended up dead, and the brother of
Mr. or "Professor" Narcisco Genovese disappeared with the
remainder of the scientific team. They ended up according to
Noel, in Argentina where they somehow met and were working with
some tall ETs. When Noel met Genovese, he and a group of people
in Los Angeles were negotiating with this mysterious group to fly
one of the discs.

All of the above came about because of what Noel described as
experiences in the Air Force, while he was part of a top secret
photo-recon squadron.

When UFO Magazine first met Noel/Kirkwood, he had not been active
for many years in the UFO field. Noel had related having spoken
at many events back in the 60's, like out at the famous Giant
Rock encounters. More recently he was invited to appear on a FOX
Network UFO special which aired in October 1991. After the
special aired, UFO Magazine was contacted by a long time UFO
researcher, a former Austrian by birth, Fritz Kron. Kron claimed
that he knew Noel/Kirkwood back in the 1960's, and that in
connection with B. Ann Slate, had written an expose on Kirkwood
for Fate Magazine. Kron had detailed Noel's story at that time as
being a former Air Force pilot, and after Noel had "come out of
the closet" and began talking about his alleged experiences, he
claims to have been invited down to Mexico to address a gathering
of very influential Mexican citizens. After Noel gave this
address, he claimed that he was invited to meet a Professor
Narcisco Genovese. As Noel had then described, and later told
*UFO, Genovese belonged to a coterie of mysterious scientists
that had originally come from Europe prior to the start of WW II.
Supposedly running from the Italian dictator Mussolini, they
resurfaced 5 years later, the brother of Narcisco Genovese being
one of them, set up a base in Argentina where they had met with
some tall blond ETs, and now had a working UFO base!

Noel/Kirkwood had started a UFO group called "Ufology Research
Institute" in connection with a man named Kent Tomlinson.
Tomlinson had a shady background, and at one time had been
investigated by the FBI for smuggling guns into Cuba, allegedly
with organized crime money. According to this law enforcement
source, Tomlinson also had a long record for bunco type
operations in the state of Florida.

As the story progressed, Noel/Kirkwood began claiming that one of
these saucers from the mysterious Genovese connection would be
landing in La Rumorosa, Mexico, and had been taking a group of
Americans down to Mexico to meet Professor Genovese. One of the
Americans was a photo-journalist by the name of Don Dornan.
Dornan has a brother, Robert Dornan, who hosted a local Los
Angeles Television show called *TEMPO, that was to figure greatly
later in the story. (Bob Dornan is now a U.S. Congressman from
So. California.)

Don Dornan had received a commission from Life Magazine to do a
story on the Noel/Kirkwood operation, and was present at many
meetings with Professor Genovese. Taking numerous photos of the
sessions, Dornan was in on the saga almost from the beginning,
and was amazed at how many people accepted without question this
fantastic story from Noel/Kirkwood and Narcisco Genovese (much
like today, with newer story tellers thrilling audiences with
tales of government conspiracies and evil aliens kidnapping and
eating helpless humans.)

According to Dornan "As meetings progressed and someone would
break out the alcohol Genovese would become more animated as his
consumption grew." During this time period Noel/Kirkwood informed
the growing audiences on Genovese's brilliance and his
proficiency in English, Greek, and German. Fritz Kron, suspicious
of "Professor Genovese" took a friend and a bottle of whiskey to
Genovese's business. ( a book bindery ) Speaking to Genovese in
his native German, Kron said "`Wie geht es Ihnen?'" It soon was
apparent that Genovese did not understand German, and according
to Kron "We fared little better speaking English." Kron presented
Genovese a bottle of liquor and Genovese gave Kron a copy of his
book "I Took a Trip to Mars". Leaving, Kron waited a couple of
hours and returned to Genoveses home. There the "professor" had
almost "killed" the bottle of liquor, and was staggering around
drunk and now very embarrassed.

However, everywhere else the excitement factor had been building.
Noel/Kirkwood had been wooing them at UFO conferences in Reno,
Miami and California. The faithful were waiting for the imminent
landing of the saucer. Already, names were being drawn up for the
first party to take off. Years later when *UFO heard this story
from Noel/Kirkwood he stated that as the date approached, another
meeting was called by Genovese and his group. According to Noel
"we were all seated in a room when they said that there was a
problem. One of the things we all had to swear to was absolute
secrecy." Noel/Kirkwood continued "During some of the early
meetings, we tried to get some proof of all this, and Don Dornan
ended up getting us some special shielded tape recorders since
our recorder would not work there for some reason. Then he came
up with a special camera that he could place in his mouth, and
work with his tongue." At this time Noel/Kirkwood stated that he
thought Dornan had intelligence connections. The last meeting
began with Genoveses group exposing Dornan for being CIA,
according to Noel/Kirkwood. The result of this was the saucer
trip being cancelled. However Don Dornan had a different
explanation. "Noall Bryce Cornwell (Noel/Kirkwood's actual name)
is a red hot amateur scam artist. He has never pushed himself to
the point where he will destroy himself on a national level. He
loves doing his gag, that is now obvious.


I was working for *Life Magazine then, and they were just getting
into the muckraking stuff and they were getting impatient.  I told
them it would take a little longer for what I thought was Noel and
Tomlinson's setting of the hook for their scam.  *Life wanted to
know just where the beef was.  Just when would the fraud be
committed?  Who was going to lose money?  There is always someone
who loses money in a scam."

"I don't know where he (Kirkwood) was getting the money. He had
to have been getting money, but I think he enjoyed the scam more
than the money. It's funny, Kirkwood thought I was some kind of
spy, but I wasn't. The real spy there, and he was sure that this
was a scam and Kirkwood was a fraud, was Bob Klinn. (Klinn was an
associate of J. A. Hynek)

"All this time" Dornan continued, "Mel (Kirkwood) was using his
"Air Force" background that established his credibility. My
brother (now Rep. Bob Dornan) had been a pilot in the Air Force,
and when he had met Mel knew he had to have been a fraud. He
(Bob Dornan) used to sneak in little things just to check out
Mel, facts that if you were a pilot then, you would have known.
Mel didn't pass the test. Also, some checks were made then to see
if Mel held a pilots license and NOT ONE THING WAS FOUND. The
Air Force was also aware that Mel had been passing himself off as
an officer, and were considering filing criminal charges on him."

Dornan continued with "I always thought that Kent Tomlinson was
the brains behind this scam. He was using Kirkwood and I finally
brought it to a head in a meeting with Genovese. In front of
everyone I asked Mel if he had ever been arrested? He said no and
I ticked off the first couple of instances. I then asked him if
he were a Fuller brush salesman. He said "yea". I then asked him
if he were a dance instructor and he answered yea. I was then
hoping that everyone else was getting it as I ran down the list.
You know what?  Almost total denial. `How do we know you're telling
the truth, or I don't believe it!' I said to myself, I gotta tell
these folks to get off the denial kick here. I told Mel that we
didn't have anything to bring charges but that (he) played with
these peoples emotions. They (group) did not want to hear this,
but as I kept going on they finally got the point that they had
been had. I told them that I was working for *Life Magazine.
Several people were worried that the story would run in the
magazine and I told them no, but that Mel had abused their
friendship and he had abused their emotions. Mel "crapped out"
and did not deny anything. I asked him if he were ever an Air
Force pilot and he said no, if he chased saucers and he said no.
That was the end of the story there."

In October 1969 Mel Noel/Guy Kirkwood walked onto the studio of
Channel 9. The program was Robert Dornan's *TEMPO, and when
Kirkwood came out he said "Hi Bob, I know your brother." Host Bob
Dornan had invited both Mel and Don Dornan onto the show to
"Hash" the story over. Don Dornan immediatly called Kirkwood on
the carpet to state his real name. "Noall Bryce Cornwell" replied
Kirkwood. Then Dornan said "Noall Bryce Cornwell is not a pilot
and never has been a pilot. (Kirkwood later did get a 2nd Class
Pilots License) All known aliases also show no record of you
holding a pilot's license." Bob Dornan then said "Were you a
commissioned AF pilot at anytime?" Kirkwood said "No sir." And
until Timothy Good's book "Above Top Secret" no more was
nationally heard of him until the Fox Broadcast where once again
he appeared as a former officer pilot with the U.S. Air Force.

Author's note;

This is one of those stories that are not much fun to do. You
see, I know Guy Kirkwood, and I LIKE Guy Kirkwood. Kirkwood has
always been a gentleman, not to mention he is a witty and
charming man. That does not change the fact that these types of
scams do nothing but harm the legitimacy of UFO research. These
are the types of scams that paint all UFO researchers with a
black brush when we try to explain that there is a real phenomena
worth looking at. Everytime someone goes on tv, radio or another
media and claims that he chased UFOs for the Air Force, or took a
trip to Mars, or saw documents that said there are underground
alien UFO bases where people are tortured and cloned, the rest of
us have to bear the brunt of laughter from the public. No wonder
the "straight community" of scientists and media laugh. Well, at
*UFO we are trying to change that.

Don Ecker

 * Origin: ParaNet Alpha-Delta The DATA Base (9:1012/3.0)

*E-O-F*


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