Bennewitz did NOT take his own life, and I would not have said that he did. I wonder who started that rumor? He died quietly in a hospital at age 75 three weeks before I went out to New Mexico on my first research trip for
Project Beta. He had been ill for many months. You can search the
local Albuquerque newspaper obituaries:
Paul F. Bennewitz, born September 30, 1927 passed away June 23, 2003. He is survived by his devoted wife, Cindy, of fifty-four years: loving sons Brad; granddaughter, Shanna: son, Jeff and wife, Kelly: step-granddaughter, Brandy; great grandson, Jeffery: son, Matt, all of Albuquerque. Paul joined the Coast Guard at seventeen during WWII. He was preceded in death by his parents, Paul Sr. and Stella Bennewitz; brothers, James Richard and Norman. Paul was an accomplished aerobatics pilot and guitarist. He was founder of the family owned and internationally known Thunder Scientific Corp. The family is most appreciative for the special care of Presbyterian Hospice and especially his nurse, Sheryl Dixon. A private family memorial has been held. He loved his sons; Dad will be greatly missed, we love you. Cremains will be interned in the Veterans National Cemetery in Santa Fe.
I think that the stress of the events of the late 1970s and '80s almost certainly contributed to his bad health.
The mistake many people make is that Doty is not worth listening to. If you know enough about what he is talking about, it is interesting to try and figure out what he is spinning, what he is making up, and what checks out. Of course, it takes patience and an almost obsessive interest in the subject matter to bother with it! This also applies to other personalities like Robert Collins. No, it does very little towards a solution to the UFO riddle, but I happen to find this cubbyhole of the subject interesting.
There is the possibility that someone or some organization in the US Government has good info on UFOs, but any sort of "disclosure" is almost impossible. The mistake many UFO enthusiasts make is to look at the government/ UFO issue as black or white. The game that is played is
far more subtle than that. I can't emphasize this enough. If you get deeply involved in it, looking at it as an all-or-nothing proposition is certain to drive you nuts, or make you angry. Decisions as to who is "good" or "bad" closes you off to so many more opportunities to learn who is doing what, and why. An agnostic mindset will get you much further, even though the ultimate "answer" remains out of grasp. You have to be OK with that to make any headway. The game involves such elements as stowing your ego, stocking data points away for later, asking the right questions and listening
very carefully. Snap moral judgments sometimes close the doors before they're open.
Some researchers get upset over the lies without bothering to check into the stories behind them. They seem to accept the possible disinfo stories when it agrees with their bias, and reject everything else, even though there is no evidence to support it. For example, Robert Durant's review of
Project Beta accepted Doty's story (from the Bell program) that he saw films of the Roswell wreckage, but rejects the rest of his statements. See my
back and forth with Robert Hastings on another thread for more of this sort of thing.
As for Hal Puthoff, he was not involved in any disinfo schemes, as far as I know. He was a member of the "Aviary" because of his connections to the intelligence world and his keen interest in the UFO subject. For all I know, he was told to report on Moore and any other civilian UFO researchers with whom he had contact. He has appeared to be coy and reserved in the few communications we have had over the years.
BTW, I was the one who pressed Doty during the Bell program by bringing up things that Bell didn't know about, such as the Linda Howe episode. What happened was that I realized that it was a golden opportunity to get Doty on the record, even though not much of real substance was discussed or revealed. The real value of that interview was that Doty chose to appear at all. I was also the one who suggested that he appear on the program in the first place, by asking him if he wanted to do it, and suggesting to Bell and the C2C producer that it might be a good show.
Many of these issues will be discussed on my show this Sunday night (5/31 8-10PM PST at killradio.org.) It will be recorded for later posting at the radiomisterioso.com site, but no time frame on that.
(like usual).
