"The planet is haunted by us.  The other occupants just evade boredom by filling our skies and seas with monsters"                                                                                   John Keel

In a field dominated by characters John Keel was a character.  A true Fortean, Keel’s areas of investigation and expertise were virtually unlimited.
 
As a boy he was interested in magic (illusion) and had his first story published in a magician’s magazine at age 12.
 
He left school at the age of 16 after taking all the science courses. He later worked as a freelance contributor to newspapers, scriptwriter for local radio and television outlets, and author of pulp articles such as "Are You a Repressed Sex Fiend?"
 
He served in the US Army during the Korean War on the staff of the American Forces Network at Frankfurt, Germany.  Keel claimed that while in the Army his primary function was writing propaganda and that he was trained in psychological warfare.  While those claims are unsubstantiated, he did work as a foreign radio correspondent in Paris, Berlin, Rome and Egypt after leaving the military, which suggests the military approved those assignments.
 
In 1957, he published Jadoo, a book describing his time in Egypt and India investigating the Indian rope trick and the existence of the Yeti.  In 1966 he produced the spy and superhero spoof novel “The Fickle Finger of Fate”.  That same year he began contributing articles to Flying Saucer Review and took up investigating UFOs and assorted Forteana as a full-time pursuit. Keel was the first to truly analyze what he called "windows" and "waves" (or flaps, as they are often called) of reported UFO events, concluding for example that a disproportionate number occurred on Wednesdays and Saturdays. 
 
Interestingly, he remained a member of the Screenwriters Guild, and paid the rent by writing scripts for Get Smart, The Monkees, Mack & Myer for Hire, and Lost in Space.
 
In 1967, Keel published an article called “UFO Agents of Terror” in the men’s magazine Saga in which he introduced the term Men in Black. 

Keel initially stayed the course of other researchers, explaining UFOs as extraterrestrial visitors.  Later though, his thinking changed dramatically.  In his third book, UFOs: Operation Trojan Horse, published in 1970, he linked UFOs to supernatural concepts such as monsters, ghosts and demons. Keel used the term "ultraterrestrials" to describe UFO occupants he believed to be either non-human entities capable of taking on whatever form they want, or manifestations of a phenomena known as time slips.
 
His 1975 book, The Mothman Prophecies was Keel's account of his investigation into alleged sightings in West Virginia of a huge, winged creature called "Mothman." The book combines Keel's account of receiving strange phone calls with reports of mutilated pets and culminates with the December 15, 1967, collapse of the Silver Bridge across the Ohio River. The book was widely popularized as the basis of a 2002 film of the same name starring Richard Gere.
 
As I’ve said previously, if you’re interested in the paranormal on any level you’re doing yourself a grave injustice by not reading The Mothman Prophecies!
 
John A. Keel died on July 3, 2009.  He was 79 years old.