William J. Birnes

William J. "Bill" Birnes (born November 7, 1944) is an American author and ufologist.^[1] A graduate of New York University, he holds a Ph.D in medieval literature (with a dissertation on Piers Plowman) from the same institution (1974) and later earned a J.D. degree from Concord Law School.^[2]

Background

Birnes served as a Lily Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania and taught literature and linguistics at Trenton State College.^[3]

UFOlogy

Birnes believes that Earth has been visited by many different types of extraterrestrials, and that pictures taken by NASA have been airbrushed to remove any evidence of alien activity.^[1] Birnes speculates that NASA may have taken missions to the Moon after Apollo 17, but these missions were kept secret from the public due to alien interference and new-found extraterrestrial artifacts. Birnes claims that NASA made three additional trips to the Moon; Apollo 18, Apollo 19, and Apollo 20. Additionally, he claims that the Apollo 13 incident was actually an extraterrestrial attack meant to scare humans away from landing on the Moon.^[4]

Birnes’s credibility was called into question when a UFO sighting over Morris County, New Jersey, on January 5, 2009, featured on the show UFO Hunters was later recognized as a hoax designed to be a social experiment.^[5]

Media

As a writer of popular nonfiction, he co-authored The Riverman with detective/academic Robert D. Keppel (1995), an account of serial killer Ted Bundy's involvement in the apprehension of Green River Killer Gary Ridgway. The book was adapted into a made-for-TV film (2004) on A&E. As a UFOlogist, Birnes collaborated with Philip J. Corso, on The Day After Roswell(1998), appeared on the History Channel's television documentary series: UFO Files (2004–2007), Ancient Aliens (2009–2013), NASA's Unexplained Files and I Know What I Saw. He starred in UFO Hunters (2008–2009) as leader of an investigative team of fellow ufologists,^[6] and later wrote a book by the same name documenting his experiences on the show.^[7] Birnes has repeatedly appeared as a guest on the late night radio talk-show Coast to Coast AM to discuss UFOs.^[3] Birnes most recent nonfiction works are Dr. Feelgood with Richard Lertzman, Wounded Minds and Hearts of Darkness with Dr. John Liebert, The Life and Times of Mickey Rooney with Richard Lertzman, Psychiatric Criminology with Dr. John Liebert, and UFO Hunters Book 2. Birnes will be appearing again in the third season of NASA's Unexplained Files and in early 2016 on Reelz TV's Dr. Feelgood.

Bibliography

• The Day After Roswell (1998) with Philip J. Corso ISBN 0-671-00461-1
• Star Trek Cookbook (1999) with Ethan Phillips
• Unsolved UFO Mysteries (2000) with Harold Burt
• The UFO Magazine UFO Encyclopedia (2004)
• Space Wars: The First Six Hours of World War III (2007) with William B. Scott, Michael J. Coumatos ISBN 0-7653-1087-2
• Worker in the Light: Unlock Your Five Senses And Liberate Your Limitless Potential (2008) with George Noory
• Serial Violence: Analysis of Modus Operandi and Signature Characteristics of Killers (2008) with Robert D. Keppel
• The Haunting of America: From the Salem Witch Trials to Harry Houdini (2009) with Joel Martin & George Noory
• Journey to the Light: Find Your Spiritual Self and Enter Into a World of Infinite Opportunity (2009) with George Noory
• Counterspace: The Next Hours of World War III (2009) with William B. Scott & Michael J. Coumatos
• UFO Hunters (2009)
• George Noory's Late-Night Snacks: Winning Recipes for Late-Night Radio Listening (2013) with George Noory
• The Haunting of Twenty-First-Century America (2013) with Joel Martin

References

External links

• William J. Birnes at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• William J. Birnes on IMDb