The Paracast Newsletter
August 13, 2023
www.theparacast.com
Fortean Explorer Dennis Stamey Reveals Tales of UFOs, Paranormal Snipers, Slashers and Animal Rippers on The Paracast!
The Paracast is heard Sundays from 3:00 AM until 6:00 AM Central Time on the GCN Radio Network and affiliates around the USA, the Boost Radio Network, the IRN Internet Radio Network, and online across the globe via download and on-demand streaming.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU HAVEN'T SIGNED UP FOR THE PARACAST+ YET? PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO THE PARACAST+ SO YOU CAN SUPPORT THE SHOW AND ENJOY THE ULTIMATE PARACAST EXPERIENCE AT A SPECIAL LOW PRICE! We have another radio show and we’d love for you listen to it. So for a low subscription fee, you will receive access to an exclusive podcast, After The Paracast, plus an enhanced version of The Paracast with the network ads removed, when you join The Paracast+. We also offer a special RSS feed for easy updates of the latest episodes on your device. Flash! Use the coupon code ufo20 to receive a 20% discount on five-year or lifetime subscriptions. And PayPal now accepts cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, in payment. And if you don't want to use PayPal, we now also offer a second payment option, from Stripe, which accepts major credit or debit cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay. For "qualified users," you can also take advantage of Pay Later options, so act now! For the easiest signup ever, please visit: https://www.theparacast.plus
This Week's Episode: Gene and cohost Tim Swartz introduce Fortean researcher Dennis Stamey, someone Gene first met 50 years ago. Dennis became interested in UFOs in 1966 during the worldwide flap of the late 1960s, immersing himself in magazine articles written by John A. Keel. As well he studied the works of Charles Fort, and Gray Barker. Eventually he started churning out a cheap mimeographed newsletter entitled Spacecraft Review and also contributed articles to Gene Steinberg's Caveat Emptor. He also took up a correspondence with Richard Shaver, who often called him an "idiot." By the 1970s, life called and Dennis set his interests in UFOs and the paranormal aside. However, starting in the early 1980s, he began looking up Fortean articles in the N.Y. Times from 1870-1890, growing intrigued with phantom snipers and slashers. His first fact book, "Mysterious Snipers, Slashers, and Animal Rippers: A History of Paranormal Assailants," was co-authored with his children, Jillian and Jesse Stamey.
After The Paracast — Available exclusively for Paracast+ subscribers on August 13: Author and researcher Dennis Stamey returns to talk to Gene and cohost Tim Swartz about his ongoing journey through the paranormal universe. The agenda includes family experiences, belief systems, and how such phenomena may all have a similar cause, associated with our consciousness. Dennis was born in Asheville, N.C., the hometown of the famous writer Thomas Wolfe (author of "Look Homeward," "Angel" and other novels), and has an MA in ancient/medieval/renaissance studies and an MA certificate in modern European history. He became interested in UFOs in 1966 during the worldwide flap of the late 1960s, and has held an on and off interest in all things paranormal over the decades. Early on, Stamey started churning out a cheap mimeographed newsletter entitled Spacecraft Review and contributed articles to Gene Steinberg's Caveat Emptor magazine. He also took up a correspondence with Richard Shaver, who often called him an "idiot."
Reminder: Please don't forget to visit our famous Paracast Community Forums for the latest news/views/debates on all things paranormal: The Paracast Community Forums. Visit our new online shop for great branded merchandise at: https://www.theparacast.shop, and check out our new YouTube channel at: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheOfficialParacastChannel.
Guest Editorial: Looking Back Over 50 Years
By Dennis Stamey
Editor’s Note: I first encountered Dennis Stamey in the early 1970s when he wrote articles for Caveat Emptor, a paranormal magazine I co-edited. We lost touch — until a few months ago when he contacted me on Facebook. In the following article, Dennis details his long and winding road across the paranormal universe.
I became interested in UFOs in 1966 when I bought a magazine from a drugstore crammed with juicy articles about alien visitors. As a kid full of wonder, I was hooked. Unfortunately, a school mate of mine borrowed the zine and never gave it back. Nevertheless, a year later, I was writing crappy articles for mimeographed UFO publications and reading everything I could on the subject. My schoolwork suffered, but I was having a grand, mystical time. I corresponded with a lot of interesting people. some level-headed. some kooky. Even made friends with a contactee (not that I believed her but she was a very nice lady).
I remember when MUFON’s newsletter started out as Skylook, a mimeographed publication churned out by a Missouri housewife named Norma Short. Norma was straight-laced and didn't appreciate my more or less radical views on saucers such as the MIB or alien contacts. MUFON continues in that vein. Unfortunately, the scientific establishment will never embrace them.
By 1970, I no longer believed UFOs were aliens. They seemed inexorably linked with the paranormal, an idea John A. Keel introduced in his books and articles. But it made sense considering the evidence. I've never really flinched from that idea since but I have modified it.
In 1980, I began collecting stuff on phantom snipers (I guess inspired by Fort's book Wild Talents) and didn't stop until I amassed a mountain of information. Within a year, though, I packed all these photocopies and clippings into a big box and laid it aside. Soon I forgot about it. Life called. I travelled, got married, and became part of the status quo. UFOs became a joke. I no longer believed. I gave my collection of books to magazines to, of all groups, MUFON. But most of the stuff was rehashed from secondary sources. A few volumes I did keep and still have.
During the interim, despite my disbelief, I did talk with folks who had paranormal encounters. Some say they saw ghosts, witches, UFOs, weird beings. It seemed that the more down-to-earth they were, the stranger their stories were. I walked the shores of Loch Ness, stood on top of a hollow fairy mound, visited a real haunted house (where I heard weird knocks and bangs), and even saw some apparitions (which might have been caused by my subconscious playing tricks). Maybe in the recesses of my mind I still believed because I remained interested, but not interested to resume my research.
In 2002, I saw The Mothman Prophecies, a film based on Keel's book by the same name. That brought back a flood of memories. Now who remembers Keel today? Certainly not this current crop of UFOlogists, those weaned on the X-Files TV show. Most are not very insightful. They are shallow. Modern UFOlogists believe in crashed saucers and in government conspiracies. Roswell is their bedrock. Interstellar space flight is a fact even though Einstein said it couldn't be done. Emery Smith, David Adair and Bob Lazar are their heroes. What a sad state.
For this reason, I didn't bother getting back into the field. About three years ago, I was cleaning the garage and found a box crammed with the stuff I had collected 40 years ago. I thought I had thrown all of it away. With the help of two of my kids, I catalogued the material and then decided to write a book, put it on Amazon.
I have been writing books since 2014, all fiction. Some were good, some terrible. Two of my novels, the E Street Bully Boys and The Hoodoo Kid, got a decent reception. The Bully Boys is about a gang of urban cats trying to survive. The Hoodoo Kid is about a black kid from the Louisiana Bayous whose dog can sniff out souls of the dead, souls that are limbo and can't find their way to heaven or to hell. I have written 16 in all including a book of poetry and a book of short stories. It's my best work. Download a copy. It's dirt cheap and it's a fun read.
None of my stories reflect my beliefs in the paranormal. They're Simply stories. Most are fantasy. The same motif runs through all of them, that good can overcome evil even when good is weak. The bad guy hardly ever wins.There are really no anti-heroes, good and evil are sharply defined. Of course, the real world doesn't work that way. Everything is a confluence of black and white.
My non-fiction work, Phantom Snipers, Slashers, and Animal Rippers, took about eight months to finish. I initially wanted to present just the cases and let the reader draw their own conclusions. Then I saw a theme emerging. These reports of phantom assailants seemed to occur during periods of anxiety or plain fear. Wow, time to postulate.
But looking back, I should have saved my theories for another book. I was trying to play both Charles Fort and John Keel, both of whom enjoyed drawing conclusions. Fort and Keel are alike in many ways. They are gadflies, but they stimulate your brain cells even though you can't always seriously accept what they say.
Since then, I've revised my premise. I also went a little too quirky toward the end with my discussion about UFOs. That should have been set aside as well. My kids didn't like that part either and they thought my theory about the collective unconscious was too spaced-out. Yeah, I agree. Lesson learned, don't play hero.
Phantom Snipers was not written for the UFO crowd. It was written for the old school believers, those of us who were educated, who were seekers, who were inquisitive, who were despoilers.
We're graying now, slowly dying off, but we still have much to say and we can be as dangerous as ever. This book is dangerous by the way, quite dangerous. It is atavistic, it provokes thought. It is challenging. It angers. It makes you think outside the box. Buy it at your own risk. You might stop being a UFOlogist. You might even become a saboteur of rigid thinking. If I'm successful with only one person, then my theorizing and my wackiness was well worth it. See you in my blog.
Here's the link to my book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09415JXR7/?tag=rockoids-20
Although I mentioned a blog as a future project during my appearances on The Paracast and After The Paracast, I decided to just go for it. Please check out my new blog: The Trickster
Copyright 1999-2023 The Paracast Company. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy: Your personal information is safe with us. We will positively never give out your name and/or e-mail address to anybody else, and that's a promise!
August 13, 2023
www.theparacast.com
Fortean Explorer Dennis Stamey Reveals Tales of UFOs, Paranormal Snipers, Slashers and Animal Rippers on The Paracast!
The Paracast is heard Sundays from 3:00 AM until 6:00 AM Central Time on the GCN Radio Network and affiliates around the USA, the Boost Radio Network, the IRN Internet Radio Network, and online across the globe via download and on-demand streaming.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU HAVEN'T SIGNED UP FOR THE PARACAST+ YET? PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO THE PARACAST+ SO YOU CAN SUPPORT THE SHOW AND ENJOY THE ULTIMATE PARACAST EXPERIENCE AT A SPECIAL LOW PRICE! We have another radio show and we’d love for you listen to it. So for a low subscription fee, you will receive access to an exclusive podcast, After The Paracast, plus an enhanced version of The Paracast with the network ads removed, when you join The Paracast+. We also offer a special RSS feed for easy updates of the latest episodes on your device. Flash! Use the coupon code ufo20 to receive a 20% discount on five-year or lifetime subscriptions. And PayPal now accepts cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, in payment. And if you don't want to use PayPal, we now also offer a second payment option, from Stripe, which accepts major credit or debit cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay. For "qualified users," you can also take advantage of Pay Later options, so act now! For the easiest signup ever, please visit: https://www.theparacast.plus
This Week's Episode: Gene and cohost Tim Swartz introduce Fortean researcher Dennis Stamey, someone Gene first met 50 years ago. Dennis became interested in UFOs in 1966 during the worldwide flap of the late 1960s, immersing himself in magazine articles written by John A. Keel. As well he studied the works of Charles Fort, and Gray Barker. Eventually he started churning out a cheap mimeographed newsletter entitled Spacecraft Review and also contributed articles to Gene Steinberg's Caveat Emptor. He also took up a correspondence with Richard Shaver, who often called him an "idiot." By the 1970s, life called and Dennis set his interests in UFOs and the paranormal aside. However, starting in the early 1980s, he began looking up Fortean articles in the N.Y. Times from 1870-1890, growing intrigued with phantom snipers and slashers. His first fact book, "Mysterious Snipers, Slashers, and Animal Rippers: A History of Paranormal Assailants," was co-authored with his children, Jillian and Jesse Stamey.
After The Paracast — Available exclusively for Paracast+ subscribers on August 13: Author and researcher Dennis Stamey returns to talk to Gene and cohost Tim Swartz about his ongoing journey through the paranormal universe. The agenda includes family experiences, belief systems, and how such phenomena may all have a similar cause, associated with our consciousness. Dennis was born in Asheville, N.C., the hometown of the famous writer Thomas Wolfe (author of "Look Homeward," "Angel" and other novels), and has an MA in ancient/medieval/renaissance studies and an MA certificate in modern European history. He became interested in UFOs in 1966 during the worldwide flap of the late 1960s, and has held an on and off interest in all things paranormal over the decades. Early on, Stamey started churning out a cheap mimeographed newsletter entitled Spacecraft Review and contributed articles to Gene Steinberg's Caveat Emptor magazine. He also took up a correspondence with Richard Shaver, who often called him an "idiot."
Reminder: Please don't forget to visit our famous Paracast Community Forums for the latest news/views/debates on all things paranormal: The Paracast Community Forums. Visit our new online shop for great branded merchandise at: https://www.theparacast.shop, and check out our new YouTube channel at: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheOfficialParacastChannel.
Guest Editorial: Looking Back Over 50 Years
By Dennis Stamey
Editor’s Note: I first encountered Dennis Stamey in the early 1970s when he wrote articles for Caveat Emptor, a paranormal magazine I co-edited. We lost touch — until a few months ago when he contacted me on Facebook. In the following article, Dennis details his long and winding road across the paranormal universe.
I became interested in UFOs in 1966 when I bought a magazine from a drugstore crammed with juicy articles about alien visitors. As a kid full of wonder, I was hooked. Unfortunately, a school mate of mine borrowed the zine and never gave it back. Nevertheless, a year later, I was writing crappy articles for mimeographed UFO publications and reading everything I could on the subject. My schoolwork suffered, but I was having a grand, mystical time. I corresponded with a lot of interesting people. some level-headed. some kooky. Even made friends with a contactee (not that I believed her but she was a very nice lady).
I remember when MUFON’s newsletter started out as Skylook, a mimeographed publication churned out by a Missouri housewife named Norma Short. Norma was straight-laced and didn't appreciate my more or less radical views on saucers such as the MIB or alien contacts. MUFON continues in that vein. Unfortunately, the scientific establishment will never embrace them.
By 1970, I no longer believed UFOs were aliens. They seemed inexorably linked with the paranormal, an idea John A. Keel introduced in his books and articles. But it made sense considering the evidence. I've never really flinched from that idea since but I have modified it.
In 1980, I began collecting stuff on phantom snipers (I guess inspired by Fort's book Wild Talents) and didn't stop until I amassed a mountain of information. Within a year, though, I packed all these photocopies and clippings into a big box and laid it aside. Soon I forgot about it. Life called. I travelled, got married, and became part of the status quo. UFOs became a joke. I no longer believed. I gave my collection of books to magazines to, of all groups, MUFON. But most of the stuff was rehashed from secondary sources. A few volumes I did keep and still have.
During the interim, despite my disbelief, I did talk with folks who had paranormal encounters. Some say they saw ghosts, witches, UFOs, weird beings. It seemed that the more down-to-earth they were, the stranger their stories were. I walked the shores of Loch Ness, stood on top of a hollow fairy mound, visited a real haunted house (where I heard weird knocks and bangs), and even saw some apparitions (which might have been caused by my subconscious playing tricks). Maybe in the recesses of my mind I still believed because I remained interested, but not interested to resume my research.
In 2002, I saw The Mothman Prophecies, a film based on Keel's book by the same name. That brought back a flood of memories. Now who remembers Keel today? Certainly not this current crop of UFOlogists, those weaned on the X-Files TV show. Most are not very insightful. They are shallow. Modern UFOlogists believe in crashed saucers and in government conspiracies. Roswell is their bedrock. Interstellar space flight is a fact even though Einstein said it couldn't be done. Emery Smith, David Adair and Bob Lazar are their heroes. What a sad state.
For this reason, I didn't bother getting back into the field. About three years ago, I was cleaning the garage and found a box crammed with the stuff I had collected 40 years ago. I thought I had thrown all of it away. With the help of two of my kids, I catalogued the material and then decided to write a book, put it on Amazon.
I have been writing books since 2014, all fiction. Some were good, some terrible. Two of my novels, the E Street Bully Boys and The Hoodoo Kid, got a decent reception. The Bully Boys is about a gang of urban cats trying to survive. The Hoodoo Kid is about a black kid from the Louisiana Bayous whose dog can sniff out souls of the dead, souls that are limbo and can't find their way to heaven or to hell. I have written 16 in all including a book of poetry and a book of short stories. It's my best work. Download a copy. It's dirt cheap and it's a fun read.
None of my stories reflect my beliefs in the paranormal. They're Simply stories. Most are fantasy. The same motif runs through all of them, that good can overcome evil even when good is weak. The bad guy hardly ever wins.There are really no anti-heroes, good and evil are sharply defined. Of course, the real world doesn't work that way. Everything is a confluence of black and white.
My non-fiction work, Phantom Snipers, Slashers, and Animal Rippers, took about eight months to finish. I initially wanted to present just the cases and let the reader draw their own conclusions. Then I saw a theme emerging. These reports of phantom assailants seemed to occur during periods of anxiety or plain fear. Wow, time to postulate.
But looking back, I should have saved my theories for another book. I was trying to play both Charles Fort and John Keel, both of whom enjoyed drawing conclusions. Fort and Keel are alike in many ways. They are gadflies, but they stimulate your brain cells even though you can't always seriously accept what they say.
Since then, I've revised my premise. I also went a little too quirky toward the end with my discussion about UFOs. That should have been set aside as well. My kids didn't like that part either and they thought my theory about the collective unconscious was too spaced-out. Yeah, I agree. Lesson learned, don't play hero.
Phantom Snipers was not written for the UFO crowd. It was written for the old school believers, those of us who were educated, who were seekers, who were inquisitive, who were despoilers.
We're graying now, slowly dying off, but we still have much to say and we can be as dangerous as ever. This book is dangerous by the way, quite dangerous. It is atavistic, it provokes thought. It is challenging. It angers. It makes you think outside the box. Buy it at your own risk. You might stop being a UFOlogist. You might even become a saboteur of rigid thinking. If I'm successful with only one person, then my theorizing and my wackiness was well worth it. See you in my blog.
Here's the link to my book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09415JXR7/?tag=rockoids-20
Although I mentioned a blog as a future project during my appearances on The Paracast and After The Paracast, I decided to just go for it. Please check out my new blog: The Trickster
Copyright 1999-2023 The Paracast Company. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy: Your personal information is safe with us. We will positively never give out your name and/or e-mail address to anybody else, and that's a promise!