The Paracast Newsletter
May 19, 2024
www.theparacast.com
Discover the Legends, Myths and the Possible Reality of the Infamous Serial Killer Jack the Ripper with Paul Begg and Brian Young on The Paracast!
The Paracast is released every Sunday and available from our site, https://www.theparacast.com, your favorite podcast app, and the IRN Internet Radio Network. All episodes from 2022, 2023 and 2024 now feature better audio and fewer ads.
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 bonus podcast, After The Paracast, plus a special version of The Paracast with all the 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! Take advantage of our lowest rates ever! Act now! It's easier than ever to susbcribe! For the easiest signup ever, please visit: https://www.theparacast.plus
This Week's Episode: Gene and cohost Tim Swartz explore the legends and myths one of the most infamous serial killers of them all, Jack the Ripper. Along for the ride is Paul Begg, who has also written highly acclaimed books about mysterious disappearances, the Mary Celeste, a history of the C.I.D. at Scotland Yard, and several books examining different aspects of the Jack the Ripper case, including "Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History," "Jack the Ripper: The Forgotten Victims," "Jack the Ripper: CSI: Whitechapel," and "Mary Celeste-The Greatest Mystery of the Sea." Also joining us is Brian Young, our resident skeptic, a friend and colleague of Begg, who will share in the conversation about Jack the Ripper. Brian is a writer, researcher, historian, cigar connoisseur, and co-hosts the Transatlantic History Ramblings podcast along with Lauren Davies, heard on Spotify and other streaming platforms. His book is "The Wrestlers’ Wrestlers: The Masters of the Craft of Professional Wrestling." Begg has a career background in newspapers and publishing as well as being a freelance writer, as he says, "For far more years than I care to think about."
After The Paracast — Available exclusively for Paracast+ subscribers on May 19: Jack the Ripper explorers Paul Begg and Brian Young rejoin Gene and cohost Tim Swartz to consider whether the mystery of this infamous serial killer from the late 19th century will be resolved in our lifetimes — or ever. Is there a passing connection with the Sherlock Holmes stories? There's also a brief segue to talk about UFOs and other unexplained phenomena and the level of evidence needed to demonstrate that something weird is going on. Begg has a career background in newspapers and publishing as well as being a freelance writer, as he says, "For far more years than I care to think about." He is interested in historical mysteries and has written books about mysterious disappearances, the Mary Celeste, a history of the C.I.D. at Scotland Yard, and several books examining different aspects of the Jack the Ripper case, which include "Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History," "Jack the Ripper: The Forgotten Victims" and "Jack the Ripper: CSI: Whitechapel." Resident skeptic Brian Young is a writer, researcher, historian, cigar connoisseur, and has a special interest in the history as well as the myths and legends of Jack the Ripper. He co-hosts the Transatlantic History Ramblings podcast along with Lauren Davies, heard on Spotify and other streaming platforms. His book is "The Wrestlers’ Wrestlers: The Masters of the Craft of Professional Wrestling."
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.
Still Seeking the Answers of a Lifetime
By Gene Steinberg
Regular listeners to The Paracast know that I’ve been at this game since I was age 11, so long ago, when I happened to notice a copy of Major Donald Keyhoe’s best-seller, “Flying Saucers From Outer Space,” on a living room coffee table in my brother’s apartment in Brooklyn, NY.
I read just a few pages, and I was hooked. It began a lifetime pursuit to learn more. I was, in those days, naive enough to expect an answer to the mystery before long. That answer was very much in line with Keyhoe’s theory, that flying craft from another planet was visiting our tiny corner of the universe, and he could persuade the U.S. government to let us in on the secret.
Keyhoe was a compelling writer. He used the skills developed as a pulp fiction writer of sci-fi tinged adventure stories to take readers of his flying saucer books on a breezy journey into the unknown. He recreated presumed conversations with the people he encountered, to improve the flow. I did assume the quotations were all or mostly factual. It’s not that people complained.
In those days, being a follower of flying saucer lore made one seem more than a little bit odd. But most people who knew about my hobby indulged me. A nod here, a smile there, but they didn’t ask me to explain why I thought it was so interesting.
Well, except for two close friends: Ken Alpert and Marty Salkind. They both shared my interest in the saucers. When I decided to start up my own newsletter, Ken helped me. We virtually grew up together and he was my very closest friend. Even though our paths have since separated, he’s still among my Facebook friends.
Marty joined me on that infamous trip to Washington, D.C., where we met up with Allen Greenfield and Rick Hilberg to visit Major Keyhoe and, according to plan, the headquarters of the UFO group of which he was director, the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP).
The meeting with Keyhoe went well, we thought. The very next day, we dropped over at NICAP’s headquarters, where Assistant Director and office manager Richard Hall waved his finger in anger at me and said “You’re not welcome here.”
I should mention that I had taken on a job at a magazine known as Saucer News, edited and published by Jim Moseley, who later earned the title of “court jester.” So Jim and Hall didn’t get along, thus I was persona non grata with the latter.
Not long thereafter, Marty became a member of a bagel baker’s union in New York City. His work kept him busy, though I never had the chance to try out any from the bakery at which he worked. We lost touch soon thereafter.
But I was full bore into chasing the flying saucers. Despite the ill-mannered treatment I received from Hall, I kept up my NICAP membership, and therein lies a tale.
In those days, there were basically two major saucer organizations in the U.S. NICAP of course, and the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO).
But NICAP was more about the politics than the research. Although it did investigate sightings, NICAP was set up by Keyhoe as a lobbying organization designed to convince the U.S. government to reveal what he regarded as the truth about flying saucers. His goal, he said, was to put NICAP out of business.
In other words, his truth had it that we were being visited by extraterrestrials. To Keyhoe, there was no other possible answer, and once the secret was out there, he could safely shut down NICAP. Indeed he said so, as I recall, in an issue of NICAP’s UFO Investigator newsletter.
When I read that specific article — and don’t ask me the date and the issue in which it appeared — I really didn’t consider what would happen with the money I paid for a subscription. If they went under before it expired, would I get my money back?
My excuse was that I was young and foolish and didn’t consider such matters. I would now. Age sometimes brings a little wisdom when it doesn’t expose a greater amount of ignorance.
In any case, NICAP hung on for quite a while. But Keyhoe was its soul, and when he was ousted due to mismanagement, the organization soldiered on for a while, but never regained its former luster. It more or less just faded away over the years, a slow death so to speak.
NICAP went on, as did loads of other UFO organizations, to clog the dustbin of history, but the phenomenon stayed put. As you know, it hasn’t gone away, and we are no closer to a solution.
Sure, the authorities want us to continue to believe there’s nothing to it, well except perhaps for some test aircraft. But that’s no different from what they’ve been telling us since the late 1940s. They never learn.
Unfortunately, the mainstream media doesn’t help much. They repeat the Pentagon’s statements with little regard to the fact that nothing seems to have changed. And, when there are meetings with the press, proper follow-up questions are rarely asked. What evidence, for example, does the Pentagon require to conclude there is at least a possibility that UAPs have an offworld origin?
While civilian researchers — and a growing number of scientists — have been looking into the mystery since the late 1940s, there are still just theories. No final answers have arrived, just hopes and dreams. It’s as if it’s Groundhog Day and we are revisiting the very same frustrating scene over and over again.
It would be boring if it wasn’t for the fact that the mystery is compelling, that it persists. Whatever the Pentagon might wish to tell us, people with actual experience with the phenomenon will usually say otherwise.
All right, maybe there are secret weapons causing some sightings. You can trace all this back to the days after World War II, and even the Stealth Fighter, which generated a number of sightings in the 1980s.
So where do we stand? I had thought of taking a pessimistic approach, pointing to the lack of progress and that I would keep going on hoping for answers before it was too late to worry about it. However, the Pentagon’s various UAP groups have led more people to take the matter seriously, and that includes scientists.
Maybe there is a secret UAP program using Dark Money to hide its work. Or maybe they still haven’t a clue and would prefer to claim there’s no evidence, perhaps to reassure themselves.
But if civilian investigators keep gathering data, maybe there will be answers. Maybe the Pentagon will be dragged kicking and screaming into publicly accepting the reality that something strange is afoot.
With fingers and toes crossed, I sometimes wonder if positive results are in the offing, and perhaps I’ll be around to see them. That would be nice.
Copyright 1999-2024 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!
May 19, 2024
www.theparacast.com
Discover the Legends, Myths and the Possible Reality of the Infamous Serial Killer Jack the Ripper with Paul Begg and Brian Young on The Paracast!
The Paracast is released every Sunday and available from our site, https://www.theparacast.com, your favorite podcast app, and the IRN Internet Radio Network. All episodes from 2022, 2023 and 2024 now feature better audio and fewer ads.
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 bonus podcast, After The Paracast, plus a special version of The Paracast with all the 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! Take advantage of our lowest rates ever! Act now! It's easier than ever to susbcribe! For the easiest signup ever, please visit: https://www.theparacast.plus
This Week's Episode: Gene and cohost Tim Swartz explore the legends and myths one of the most infamous serial killers of them all, Jack the Ripper. Along for the ride is Paul Begg, who has also written highly acclaimed books about mysterious disappearances, the Mary Celeste, a history of the C.I.D. at Scotland Yard, and several books examining different aspects of the Jack the Ripper case, including "Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History," "Jack the Ripper: The Forgotten Victims," "Jack the Ripper: CSI: Whitechapel," and "Mary Celeste-The Greatest Mystery of the Sea." Also joining us is Brian Young, our resident skeptic, a friend and colleague of Begg, who will share in the conversation about Jack the Ripper. Brian is a writer, researcher, historian, cigar connoisseur, and co-hosts the Transatlantic History Ramblings podcast along with Lauren Davies, heard on Spotify and other streaming platforms. His book is "The Wrestlers’ Wrestlers: The Masters of the Craft of Professional Wrestling." Begg has a career background in newspapers and publishing as well as being a freelance writer, as he says, "For far more years than I care to think about."
After The Paracast — Available exclusively for Paracast+ subscribers on May 19: Jack the Ripper explorers Paul Begg and Brian Young rejoin Gene and cohost Tim Swartz to consider whether the mystery of this infamous serial killer from the late 19th century will be resolved in our lifetimes — or ever. Is there a passing connection with the Sherlock Holmes stories? There's also a brief segue to talk about UFOs and other unexplained phenomena and the level of evidence needed to demonstrate that something weird is going on. Begg has a career background in newspapers and publishing as well as being a freelance writer, as he says, "For far more years than I care to think about." He is interested in historical mysteries and has written books about mysterious disappearances, the Mary Celeste, a history of the C.I.D. at Scotland Yard, and several books examining different aspects of the Jack the Ripper case, which include "Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History," "Jack the Ripper: The Forgotten Victims" and "Jack the Ripper: CSI: Whitechapel." Resident skeptic Brian Young is a writer, researcher, historian, cigar connoisseur, and has a special interest in the history as well as the myths and legends of Jack the Ripper. He co-hosts the Transatlantic History Ramblings podcast along with Lauren Davies, heard on Spotify and other streaming platforms. His book is "The Wrestlers’ Wrestlers: The Masters of the Craft of Professional Wrestling."
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.
Still Seeking the Answers of a Lifetime
By Gene Steinberg
Regular listeners to The Paracast know that I’ve been at this game since I was age 11, so long ago, when I happened to notice a copy of Major Donald Keyhoe’s best-seller, “Flying Saucers From Outer Space,” on a living room coffee table in my brother’s apartment in Brooklyn, NY.
I read just a few pages, and I was hooked. It began a lifetime pursuit to learn more. I was, in those days, naive enough to expect an answer to the mystery before long. That answer was very much in line with Keyhoe’s theory, that flying craft from another planet was visiting our tiny corner of the universe, and he could persuade the U.S. government to let us in on the secret.
Keyhoe was a compelling writer. He used the skills developed as a pulp fiction writer of sci-fi tinged adventure stories to take readers of his flying saucer books on a breezy journey into the unknown. He recreated presumed conversations with the people he encountered, to improve the flow. I did assume the quotations were all or mostly factual. It’s not that people complained.
In those days, being a follower of flying saucer lore made one seem more than a little bit odd. But most people who knew about my hobby indulged me. A nod here, a smile there, but they didn’t ask me to explain why I thought it was so interesting.
Well, except for two close friends: Ken Alpert and Marty Salkind. They both shared my interest in the saucers. When I decided to start up my own newsletter, Ken helped me. We virtually grew up together and he was my very closest friend. Even though our paths have since separated, he’s still among my Facebook friends.
Marty joined me on that infamous trip to Washington, D.C., where we met up with Allen Greenfield and Rick Hilberg to visit Major Keyhoe and, according to plan, the headquarters of the UFO group of which he was director, the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP).
The meeting with Keyhoe went well, we thought. The very next day, we dropped over at NICAP’s headquarters, where Assistant Director and office manager Richard Hall waved his finger in anger at me and said “You’re not welcome here.”
I should mention that I had taken on a job at a magazine known as Saucer News, edited and published by Jim Moseley, who later earned the title of “court jester.” So Jim and Hall didn’t get along, thus I was persona non grata with the latter.
Not long thereafter, Marty became a member of a bagel baker’s union in New York City. His work kept him busy, though I never had the chance to try out any from the bakery at which he worked. We lost touch soon thereafter.
But I was full bore into chasing the flying saucers. Despite the ill-mannered treatment I received from Hall, I kept up my NICAP membership, and therein lies a tale.
In those days, there were basically two major saucer organizations in the U.S. NICAP of course, and the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO).
But NICAP was more about the politics than the research. Although it did investigate sightings, NICAP was set up by Keyhoe as a lobbying organization designed to convince the U.S. government to reveal what he regarded as the truth about flying saucers. His goal, he said, was to put NICAP out of business.
In other words, his truth had it that we were being visited by extraterrestrials. To Keyhoe, there was no other possible answer, and once the secret was out there, he could safely shut down NICAP. Indeed he said so, as I recall, in an issue of NICAP’s UFO Investigator newsletter.
When I read that specific article — and don’t ask me the date and the issue in which it appeared — I really didn’t consider what would happen with the money I paid for a subscription. If they went under before it expired, would I get my money back?
My excuse was that I was young and foolish and didn’t consider such matters. I would now. Age sometimes brings a little wisdom when it doesn’t expose a greater amount of ignorance.
In any case, NICAP hung on for quite a while. But Keyhoe was its soul, and when he was ousted due to mismanagement, the organization soldiered on for a while, but never regained its former luster. It more or less just faded away over the years, a slow death so to speak.
NICAP went on, as did loads of other UFO organizations, to clog the dustbin of history, but the phenomenon stayed put. As you know, it hasn’t gone away, and we are no closer to a solution.
Sure, the authorities want us to continue to believe there’s nothing to it, well except perhaps for some test aircraft. But that’s no different from what they’ve been telling us since the late 1940s. They never learn.
Unfortunately, the mainstream media doesn’t help much. They repeat the Pentagon’s statements with little regard to the fact that nothing seems to have changed. And, when there are meetings with the press, proper follow-up questions are rarely asked. What evidence, for example, does the Pentagon require to conclude there is at least a possibility that UAPs have an offworld origin?
While civilian researchers — and a growing number of scientists — have been looking into the mystery since the late 1940s, there are still just theories. No final answers have arrived, just hopes and dreams. It’s as if it’s Groundhog Day and we are revisiting the very same frustrating scene over and over again.
It would be boring if it wasn’t for the fact that the mystery is compelling, that it persists. Whatever the Pentagon might wish to tell us, people with actual experience with the phenomenon will usually say otherwise.
All right, maybe there are secret weapons causing some sightings. You can trace all this back to the days after World War II, and even the Stealth Fighter, which generated a number of sightings in the 1980s.
So where do we stand? I had thought of taking a pessimistic approach, pointing to the lack of progress and that I would keep going on hoping for answers before it was too late to worry about it. However, the Pentagon’s various UAP groups have led more people to take the matter seriously, and that includes scientists.
Maybe there is a secret UAP program using Dark Money to hide its work. Or maybe they still haven’t a clue and would prefer to claim there’s no evidence, perhaps to reassure themselves.
But if civilian investigators keep gathering data, maybe there will be answers. Maybe the Pentagon will be dragged kicking and screaming into publicly accepting the reality that something strange is afoot.
With fingers and toes crossed, I sometimes wonder if positive results are in the offing, and perhaps I’ll be around to see them. That would be nice.
Copyright 1999-2024 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!