Al Bielek Debunked

Al Bielek’s Faked Family Album

To illustrate how Al Bielek provided false information about his own life (his alleged life as Edward Cameron and the false statements about his father and his brother), we use the original texts from transcripts of three of his interviews as well as what can be read on the web site www.bielek.com. Screenshots of the applicable web pages taken from Bielek.com are also available in this report. The transcripts of his speech at the MUFON Conference on 13 January 1990, were transcribed by Clay Tippen and corrected by Rick Anderson in October 1992. The second source that we use is the interview which was conducted by Susanne Konicov from CONNECTING LINK, Issue 19, in 1992. The third interview was conducted by Kenneth Burke at the Global Sciences Congress, Daytona Beach, Florida, in August 1997.

To the average person, the story of a top-secret US Navy experiment taking place in the middle of WW II appears fantastic and exciting. Al Bielek is a gifted speaker and lecturer, and as a source for PX lore, he is very convincing. However, to the critical view of one who has taken a ‘crime investigators’ point of view, becoming more than a passive reader, becoming very familiar with historical facts of WW II and the technical developments since the war, it becomes obvious that Bielek has merged real facts with fiction; as well he borrowed subjects from other sources, adding them as layers and filler.

The main story of the Philadelphia Experiment [known as the PX], as Bielek describes it is nothing short of the content of the first Philadelphia Experiment movie released in 1984, starring Michael Parè as sailor John Herdeg. In Bielek’s version, Bielek and his brother were those two sailors (depicted in the film) onboard the test ship USS Eldridge. He then adopts the idea of time travel into the future (to the year 1983) from that movie. Other subjects are then borrowed from the well-known Roswell Incident (how the US government made contact with Aliens) and again others from another movie, titled “Alternative III” which relates a story about secret colonies on Mars. Additionally, Bielek incorporates subjects like “remote viewing.”

However, let’s return to Bielek himself. For about ten years, he didn’t provide any ‘proof’ for any of his claims, except for some underground videos that were of really poor [visual] quality and dealt primarily with what some consider to be the spin-off project called the Montauk Project. In 1998, Bielek opened his own website, and there, for the first time in public, he showed what he refers to as his “family” history. Besides some common photographs of Nikola Tesla and John von Neuman, he presents photographs of his [supposed] father and his brother.

Al Bielek as Edward Cameron

Al Bielek has consistently claimed in all his interviews that he once lived as another person, named “Edward Cameron”. Here are the corresponding quotations taken from his interviews:

From the speech at the MUFON Conference, 1990 (The important statements are highlighted.)

“Now I think at this point, I should say where I came into it, both myself and my brother. I was born August 4, 1916, in the New York area, to a Mr. Alexander Duncan Cameron, Sr., the father, and a mother who, I don’t believe was married from what little research we were able to do. Had a rather uneventful life, but pleasant life, because there was money in the family. My brother was born in May of 1917. And we went on our merry way. Had a ball as it was, didn’t have any worries about money. Came the Depression years, we decided to go to school and get an education. He went to the University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, until he graduated in 1939, in the summer of ’39 with a PHD in physics. I went to Princeton, Bachelor’s and Master’s; I went to Harvard for my doctorate. Earlier, von Neumann said, “You don’t want to get your doctorate here at Princeton. Go to Harvard, it’s a better school. So I took a doctorate out at Harvard; I think it was in August of ’39. In the meantime, I should add, there were some other things going in the background, and that background happened to be our father.

He, himself served in the Navy in World War I. He was a seaman, in the pictures we have in our family album. Exactly when he joined we don’t know and exactly when he left the Navy, we don’t know. Those papers are missing. But as far as we know, he spent a full 20 years, took his retirement in the very early 30’s. And at what rank he left, we don’t know, and what connections he made, we don’t really know, but he must have made some very interesting connections with intelligence because of what happened from that point on. Now in the 30’s. From that point on he never worked a day in his life… by the way, he didn’t need to. Now in the 30’s he had a hobby, and that was building sailboats. Not little models, but full-sized ones, which he used to race in the various regatta races, around Long Island, which was very common then. Take a trophy or two. Get tired of the boat, and then sell it, and build another. In the meantime he also became very active in other things. Those other things were smuggling scientists out of Nazi, Germany, and bringing them to the United States. That’s a long piece of history, and I don’t really need to go into. But it ceased in 1939 when the war became hot. In September of 1939 due to the arrangements by my father, who apparently had a great deal of influence in the Navy, had pre-arranged that we enlist in the Navy, as we both did in September of 1939. We were given commissions; we then went to a special naval training school, in Providence, Rhode Island, for 90 days.

We were probably among the earliest of what later they called the “90 Day Wonders” in the Navy. In 90 days you were trained as an officer and were supposed to know everything. Be that as it may, we were then at the end of that in 1939, early 1940. We were assigned to the institute.

Now one of the other things that had to be done eventually was to develop a special crew. This came a little bit later. January of ’41, the Navy decided that my brother and I needed some sea duty, so they transferred us to Brooklyn Navy yard, and about a month or so later we were assigned to the Pennsylvania, an old-line battle wagon, and we went out into the Pacific. We were out there most of the year of 1941. Along about October of ’41, when the Pennsylvania was brought in to Pearl Harbor to dry dock for some repairs, we took some leave and eventually went to San Francisco. We had a ball in San Francisco in those days, but we were there during that period of October, late October, early November; and in November it was finally decided that we go back to Pearl Harbor. Our orders were cut and on December 5th we were getting on the runway for the aircraft at the Naval Air station to be sent back to Pearl Harbor when we were intercepted by a captain in the Navy and addressed us by our ranks, and said, “Your orders are canceled. Come with me.” We followed him to an upstairs room in the Naval Air station and we were met by Hal Bowen, Sr., who said, “Gentlemen, your orders have been canceled. You may as well know that we will be at war with Japan within 48 to 72 hours. We expect them to attack Pearl Harbor. You’re much too valuable to send back to Pearl Harbor; you will stay here in the San Francisco area. You can do paperwork. You will be assigned to the Pennsylvania; its home berth is San Francisco. You can finish out your year’s tour here in San Francisco. You will then be returned to the Institute to continue your work. Enjoy it while you may, because there will be no leave time, and there will be nothing but hard work after you’re back there.” So we did. We enjoyed it. And eventually, we went back there in January of ’42.”

Those are Bielek’s claims from his first speech of 1990. For comparison purposes, let’s do a quick summary of what Al Bielek tells here:

• Al Bielek, born August 4, 1916 in the New York Area to his father Mr. Alexander Duncan Cameron, Sr., who served in the Navy in WW I
• No details about his mother
• Al Bielek’s brother, born May 1917, went to the
• University of Edinborough, Scotland (Editors note: as well called ‘Edinburgh’) until he graduated in summer 1939 with a Ph. D. in physics
• Al Bielek, went to Princeton, Bachelor and Master’s Degree, then to Harvard for his doctorate

Al Bielek subsequently repeated most of this in the 1992 interview conducted by Susanne Konicov for CONNECTING LINK, Issue 19:

“Alfred Bielek was born on August 4, 1916 as Edward A. Cameron II, son of Alexander Duncan Cameron, Sr. My father (Alexander Duncan Cameron, Sr.) enlisted in the U.S. Navy prior to the U.S. entry into World War 1. He sired me and later A. Duncan Cameron, Jr. (May 1917), by different mothers. Both Duncan and 1, as half-brothers, were raised largely by Aunt Arnold in the Big House, still in West Islip, Long Island (father remained in the Navy until 1930, when he was retired with a pension). Since there was no lack of money (due to the Arnold/Constable Department Store fortune), Duncan Jr. and I (upon completion of high school) attended different universities. I went first to Princeton, and later to Harvard, obtaining a Ph.D. in physics. Duncan attended the University of Edinborough (Edinborough, Scotland), also obtaining a Ph.D. in physics, in the summer of 1939.

In September of 1939, both Duncan and I enlisted in the U.S. Navy-taking commissions as Lt. (J.G.) and then attending a 90-day training school for “Special Assignment” Navy personnel at Providence, Rhode Island. With completion of training, we were both assigned to the Institute of Advanced Study (Princeton, N.J.) and directly to the ongoing “Project Invisibility.” With a completely successful test in 1940 (Brooklyn Navy Yard), the project was classified and renamed “Project Rainbow.” Offices were set up in the Philadelphia Navy Yard. Duncan and I both shuttled back and forth between Philadelphia and Princeton. In January 1941, we were sent to sea for sea duty on the U.S.S. Pennsylvania. We toured the Pacific until October 1941, when the Pennsylvania was put in dry dock at Pearl Harbor. After taking leave in San Francisco and remaining there through December 1941, we were returned to the Institute early in January 1942. We worked on the project through 1942-Nikola Tesla dropped out in March 1942, and Dr. John Von Neumann took over at that time. “

Bielek repeated all of the previous statements concerning his close relatives and his family, and with the photographs (intended to back up his claims) which he published on his internet website. We now had enough material to go into the final rounds of our investigation.

On the website bielek.com, the majority of the claims stated above can be found.

The life of Ed Cameron

Al describes his early life as Ed Cameron. He was born on August 4th 1916 in Bay Shore Long Island, New York to father Alexander Duncan Cameron and mother (maiden name) Arville from a common law marriage. His Aunt Arnold raised him and Duncan in a 26-room mansion in Long Island. Ed went to Princeton in 1932 and finished up his education with a PhD at Harvard in 1939. He met Dr. John Von Neumann first at Princeton – a meeting that would change the course of his life. After Ed left Harvard, both Ed and his brother Duncan were recruited to work with the Navy in September 1939 and sent through a 90-day training school and left with the rank of Lt. “JG”. Dr. Von Neumann recruited both of them to work in the Project Invisibility (Rainbow) project. While waiting for the battleship to be modified, Ed and Duncan were assigned to the USS Pennsylvania. They were scheduled to leave to Pearl Harbor on December 5th, 1941, and had their orders canceled because it was known that the Japanese would bomb Pear Harbor. Apparently, the brothers were deemed too valuable to put into harms way.”

Al Bielek changed only some minor details. Now, on his website of 1998, he mentioned for the first time his mothers name and that she was legally married to his father, Alexander Duncan Cameron. In his speech from 1990, he said, “I don’t believe [she] was married from what little research we were able to do.” OK, it is possible that Bielek did some research into his family roots since his 1990 statements. # However, another subject he added to his personal history is noteworthy: In the 1992 interview conducted by Susanne Konicov, he said this:

“Both Duncan and I, as half-brothers, were raised largely by Aunt Arnold in the Big House, still in West Islip, Long Island (father remained in the Navy until 1930, when he was retired with a pension).” And yes, we were able to find what Bielek called the ‘Cameron Estate’. It is located in Bay Shore, a town of 35,000 residents in Suffolk County. We were able to get some photographs of that building and to have somebody ask around for additional background information. Arnold Manor, as it is called today, once was a large house (Bielek referred to it as the ‘Big House’) housing only one family, which was the family of ‘Aunt Arnold’, as Bielek named her. Today, the property has been converted into condos, but the address is still 1000 Montauk Highway in West Islip, NY. And yes, the name of that road rings some familiar bells. The Montauk Highway, as the route 27A is called in this part of the county, leads to another mysterious place: to the Montauk Air Force Station.

To make this part of the story complete, we were able to find an older lady named Nancy Donahue, who works for the Sagtikos Historical Society. This society is linked to a Manson named Sagtikos Manor, which is a old historical place located about one mile east of Arnold Manor. History relates that President George Washington stayed at Sagtikos Manor in the late 1700’s, when it was an Inn. Mrs. Donahue was asked about the people who lived at Arnold Manor during the 30ties and 40ties, and she remembered Annie Arnold, which must be the same as Al Bielek’s Aunt Arnold, but she definitely did not remember any boys living with her Aunt in those days.

The email of our contact in West Islip is can be found here.

In spite of Bielek’s testimony of a specific place of birth, it has not been possible to trace the existence of one Edward Cameron II, born August 4, 1916. in Bay Shore. However, thanks to his website Bielek.com, we now had some photographs and we eventually managed to find the ‘real’ person on the photograph, which Al Bielek refers to as ‚Ed Cameron’, which was taken from the yearbook of the Princeton University. However, the name below that photograph clearly reads “A. Cameron”, which is another glitch in Bielek’s claims.

The posting of an actual photograph of Edward Cameron on the Al Bielek website provided the first bit of hard information in the Cameron/Bielek saga. Until that time, the only photographic evidence of the Cameron family consisted of two photos of family patriarch Alexander Duncan Cameron as a young man and as an older middle-aged man. In each photograph, ADC was dressed in naval military garb. The first as a sailor of some rank and then as an apparent officer in the Coast Guard. The photos would appear to document his involvement in the military during WWI and WWII. These photos were published in the second Montauk Project book, Montauk Revisited: Adventures in Synchronicity.

There have never been any published photos of Duncan Cameron as he appeared in his previous incarnation. Only as he looked as a man about in his 40s in this life. According to the story, when he and his brother Edward became involved in the Montauk Project, at some point Duncan began to die so, via time travel, intelligence officials went back in time and told Alexander Duncan Cameron that he had to have another son so that the spirit of Duncan could be put into body of the new child. That child, now grown-up, is the Duncan that exists now and has a photograph in the above-mentioned Montauk book as well as pictured a number of times in the Duncan Cameron section of the Bielek website. One of those pictures shows Duncan with his father, pictured as an elderly gentleman, in a color photograph from around the 1970s.

It is quite interesting to have a look at the source code for that specific part of the web page, which states the link for that picture as “Princeton yearbook 1936 showing photo of Ed Cameron.”

Source code of the page “The life of Ed Cameron” taken from Bielek.com

This raised a question as to the true source of the photograph, Princeton or Yale. Since the photo of Edward Cameron was listed as being from a source, then that photo could be tracked down and verified with further intelligence gathered about the person. That is exactly what happened. One part of our team went to Princeton, where inside the glass-encased archives of the MUDD building, access was obtained on an internet terminal to Bielek’s website. The archivist on duty was shown the photograph of Edward Cameron from that site, a photo that in fact, doesn’t say “Edward” or “E” Cameron but “A”, and that photo was discovered in the 1936 Princeton Year Book. The photo was then found to actually belong to Alex Cameron III, hence the “A” initial, and his phone number and address was listed. As far as the Princeton records indicated there, he was even supposed to have still been alive at that time, which was February of 2001. We sent some requests to both Yale and Princeton Universities and received the answers that were already anticipating.The rest of us had sent requests out to both Yale and Princeton Universities and received the answers that we were already anticipating. We got that confirmed by email from Mrs. Christie Lutz, Project Archivist of Princeton University. This is her reply:

“Thank you for your inquiry concerning Alexander Cameron and Malcolm G. Cameron, both of Princeton University’s Class of 1936. The photographs of these individuals in The Nassau Herald correspond with other images of them in our collections. I have located some general information on these two men, as follows:

Alexander Cameron, III was born September 15, 1912. He attended St. George’s, Newport before entering Princeton in 1932 and did not attend any other colleges as far as I could determine. He withdrew from Princeton in 1934 to enter the yarn business and lived in Pennsylvania. Mr. Cameron died in 1999.”

Malcolm G. Cameron was born March 20, 1913. He attended the Hun School and Woodberry Forest and entered MIT in 1931. He left MIT and entered Princeton in 1932, withdrawing in 1935. Mr. Cameron lived in Virginia and was in the aviation business. He died in 1981.

This was something that we were expecting and now we held concrete proof in our hands. The man on the photo from Al Bielek’s webpage ” The Life of Ed Cameron” was NOT Ed Cameron; it was a person named Alexander Cameron and he had totally different biographical data!

As a cross-check, we received an answer from Mr. Tom Hyry, Archivist at Yale University, which reads as follows:

“Your request regarding the attached digital image of a yearbook page depicting A. Cameron and M. G. Cameron was forwarded to the Manuscripts and Archives Department. If you look closely at the image, you can make out the words “Princeton University” in the seal at the top of the page, which suggests this reproduction was not taken from a Yale yearbook. To make sure, I checked the _Catalogue of Yale University Alumni, 1924-1954_, and neither Cameron is listed.“

Unfortunately, a phone call placed to Alex Cameron’s listed residence confirmed that he had died. A woman, who described herself as the maid, said that he had died two years ago but gave us the phone number of his son, Alex Cameron IV. So, these emails and the photos proved some interesting facts:

1. There never was a man with the name Ed (or Edward) Cameron at the University of Princeton during the times Bielek claims.
2. The picture shown on the web page of Bielek.com was really of a man named Alexander Cameron III, who died in 1999.
3. The picture name in the source code of the web page of Bielek.com had been labeled to “Yale_yearbook.jpg” in order to create a false track in case somebody actually tried to trace the origin of that photo back to its roots.