The Newspaper Article Fact or Fake
Carl Allen gives reference to two newspaper articles in his letters to Jessup in 1956. In his third letter sent on May 25, 1956 he states;
“Check Philadelphia Papers for a tiny one Paragraph… of an Item describing the Sailors Actions after their initial Voyage. They Raided a Local to the Navy Yard “Gin Mill” or “Beer Joint” & caused such Shock & Paralysis of the Waitresses that Little comprehensible could be gotten from them, save that Paragraph & the Writer of it, Does Not Believe it, & Says “I only wrote what I heard & them Dames is Daffy. So, all I get is “Hide-it” Bedtime Story.” – Carl M. Allen
William Moore
William Moore states that an unknown source sent him one of the newspaper articles photocopied with no reference to the paper name or date. The column width was also greater than that used by any paper in the Philadelphia area in the 1940’s. Further no reference to the name of the tavern was given. In a letter to Gray Baker, Joseph J. Merenda writes;
“The favorite watering hole of the Philadelphia seamen was the ‘Big House,’ which is no longer in existence. It was located at Broad Street and Oregon Avenue. It was a favored watering-hole of the Philadelphia sailors.”
I think that there was a chance that Carl Allen himself could have manufactured and mailed the article to Moore, to further the mystery, and keep Moore’s interest. Although Carl Allen himself accuses Moore & Berlitz of outright fraud on the FABRICATION of the “newspaper clipping”
Overall the entire article is written without dates, facts, names or locations; “the local police”, an unnamed tavern, in the vicinity of the dockyards, two unnamed waitresses, and an unnamed male witness.
Gray Barker stats without providing any details;
“..this appeared in a Camden, New Jersey newspaper (which we were able to find).” – Gray Barker
“UNDER NARCO-HYPNOSIS I CAN BE ENABLED TO DIVULGE THE NAME, DATE & SECTION & PAGE NUMBER of that Paper & the other one. The Name of the REPORTER who skeptically covered & wrote of these incidents (OF THE RESTAURANT-BARROOM RAID WHILE INVISIBLE & OF THE SHIPS SUDDEN AWOL) AND WHO INTERVIEWED the Waitresses CAN THUS BE FOUND, thus HIS and the Waitresses testimony can be added to the Records.” – Carl Allen’s 2nd Letter to Mr. Jessup
“I am a sixty-seven year old retired executive. I was in the Navy from 1942 through 1945..”
“I was in that bar that evening, we had two or three beers, and I was one of the two sailors who are said to have disappeared mysteriously. The other fellow was named Dave. I don’t remember his last name, but he served on the DE 49. The fight started when some of the sailors bragged about the secret equipment and were told to keep their mouths shut. Two of us were minors. I told you I cheated on my enlistment papers. The waitresses scooted us out the back door as soon as trouble began and later denied knowing anything about us.” – Edward Dudgeon [1]
it was in the “Allende’s Papers“;
“You can be sure this is kept in a secure safe place. In one of Allende’s letters to Dr. Jessup, he states that on the night of October 23, after the experiment, several sailors stopped at the Stadium Bar at Broad and Snyder Aves. (still there). After sitting at the bar for an hour, the sailors suddenly became rowdy and started fighting with the other customers. In the midst of the melee, two sailors literally walked though the wall and disappeared outside. The story was published the next day in one of the Philadelphia newspapers. This could not be found. At that time the newspapers were The Record, The Evening Bulletin, The Ledger, The Inquirer and the Daily News. Papers of October 23−24 1943 would be almost impossible to find, even on microfilm. It is, however, a matter of record. The bartender at the time had committed suicide. Two waitresses were hospitalized with nervous breakdowns.” – Sam Kuncevich [2]
Frederick Tracy, in a letter dated March 10, 1980, went on to recall that Myers, who he said was originally from Philadelphia, had shown him a worn collection of several small news clippings which he kept in his wallet and which had to do with the barroom brawl incident.
“The clippings (I saw) were… small articles, one from Camden, N.J. They were published about three months after (Myers said) the incident happened. I read these articles, and one other about the reporter who was fired. They said he was drunk when he wrote these stories.” – Frederick Tracy [3]
To this date (Nov/2020) no one has come forward with the exact newspaper and date the article appeared in. Not even a copy of the originally mailed clipping has appeared anywhere. I have personally searched thousands of newspaper pages and have found nothing that resembles the gist of this article
[1]“Anatomy of a Hoax: The Philadelphia Experiment Fifty Years Later” Pre release copy mailed to me by Jacques Vallée.
[2]“The Philadelphia Experiment” Article By Sam Kuncevich, Published in The Blurb Vol 53 Num 3, Mar 2003 & Vol 53 Num 4, Apr 2003
[3]“The Philadelphia Experiment: An Update” by William L. Moore, 1984
