From: legion@werple.apana.org.au (John Stepkowski) Subject: Guy Kirkwood/Mel Noel Expose 1/3 Date: 21 Aug 1994 03:03:08 +1000 Organization: werple public-access unix, Melbourne Hi Ross.. * In alt.paranet.ufo, Ross Bench writes: >>I'll append part of Don Ecker's article to the end of this message, >>but I'll be happy to post the entire piece if anyone is interested. > I would appreciate it if you could post the entire piece... Coming up... - John ========================= *>To: All *>From: Don Ecker *>Subject: Guy Kirkwood Story Submitted: 06 Sep93 11:58:00 This file is provided to Fido-Net by UFO Magazine. All rights are reserved. You may distribute this file freely as long as this header remains intact. Date prepared: 09/03/93 Contributed by: Don Ecker/ UFO Magazine ======================================================= 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* *--------------------------------* |................................| |.. legion@werple.apana.org.au ..| |................................| *--------------------------------*