Jim Keith

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Jim Keith (September 22, 1949 - September 7, 1999) was an American author. His best known work is "The Octopus", co-written with Kenn Thomas, which details conspiracy theories around the death of reporter Danny Casolaro. The book is based on the notes of Danny Casolaro, who reportedly killed himself, although Keith and Thomas suspected foul play.

Keith fell from a stage and broke his knee at the annual Burning Man arts festival held on the Black Rock Desert in Nevada, about 120 miles north of his hometown of Reno. He went to the Washoe Medical hospital there and died shortly after surgery, in ICU, when a blood clot released and entered his lung, although the coroner's report listed cause of death as "blunt force trauma." Cryptically, Keith stated, prior to his death, "I have this feeling that if they put me under I'm not coming back". He is survived by two daughters.

Keith wrote other relatively popular books on conspiracy topics, including Mind Control/World Control, Black Helicopters I and II, OK Bomb, Saucers of the Illuminati, Casebook on Alternative 3, Casebook on the Men In Black and many others. His writing has been criticized as factually inaccurate. In any case, his views were unapologetically controversial. For example, Keith claimed that former American President Bill Clinton was a "Soviet agent".

One of the underlying themes of Keith's works is the notion that the UFO phenomenon is, in fact, of entirely earthly origin and has its roots within a parallel program of technological development. This is an unsupported assertion of what can be termed as a "Close Encounter of the Third Kind". Keith maintained a steadfast commitment to the earthly-origin theory, and he believed that there was a concerted effort to put forth the extraterrestrial hypothesis into the public consciousness.

Jim began in publishing in the little literary magazine scene of science-fiction fandom in the early 1960s. He published and edited many zines over the years, including several semi-professional publications, particularly: Why?, Skyline: Klamath Falls and Dharma Combat: The Magazine of Spirituality, Reality and Other Conspiracies. Keith was also the author of numerous erotic novels, publishing several in the early nineties with Masquerade Books. His nonfiction books have been translated into numerous languages.

Keith helped several of his friends get their start as writers, helping land first book gigs for George Piccard, Len Bracken and Jerry E. Smith. Keith was friends with them, knowing Smith since high school. Together, Keith and Smith also produced the regional newspaper Skyline: Klamath Falls and co-hosted a radio show broadcasting from the campus of the Oregon Institute of Technology.

In 1970, after publishing an article on Dianetics in his sci-fi fanzine Untitled (co-edited with Jerry E. Smith and Larry Neilson) Keith became fascinated with Scientology. He later worked on the staff of local Scientology Missions in Riverside, California and Reno, Nevada. In the early 1990s he left Scientology after being introduced to the Harry Palmer (Avatar) material. He was saving money to take the "Avatar Masters Course" at the time of his death. [citation needed]

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