Ben Radford
American skeptical investigator and Skeptical Inquirer editor
- Born
- 1970
- Role
- Deputy editor, Skeptical Inquirer; research fellow, Committee for Skeptical Inquiry
- Known for
- Investigations of chupacabras, ghosts and media panics
- Books
- Tracking the Chupacabra (2011); Scientific Paranormal Investigation (2010)
American investigator of paranormal claims who has traced the FBI's 'Hottel memo' to a 1950 crashed-saucer hoax.
What is Ben Radford known for?
Benjamin Radford is an American writer and investigator of paranormal claims. He joined the magazine Skeptical Inquirer as managing editor in 1997 and became its deputy editor in 2011. He is a research fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.
His books include Tracking the Chupacabra (2011), on the Puerto Rican 'goat-sucker' legend; Scientific Paranormal Investigation (2010); Mysterious New Mexico (2014); and Investigating Ghosts (2017).
Radford has written that the 1950 FBI memo by Guy Hottel, which repeats a third-hand story about three flying saucers recovered in New Mexico, matches the crashed-saucer tale then being spread by the con man Silas Newton and his partner Leo GeBauer. Newton was later investigated for fraud. The FBI itself describes the memo as an uninvestigated second- or third-hand claim.
Cited for tracing the FBI's 1950 Hottel memo to the crashed-saucer hoax associated with Silas Newton.
Sources
- Wikipedia, 'Benjamin Radford'Reference
- FBI, 'UFOs and the Guy Hottel Memo'Primary text
- FBI Records: The Vault, 'Guy Hottel'Primary text
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