vault backup: 2026-10-16 01:25:00

10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Morris K. Jessup.md

@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ relations:
     role: "Varo retyped the annotated paperback; Barker wrote that Jessup was called in by Varo, shown the book and given several copies"
     fn: 2
 created: 2026-10-02
-updated: 2026-10-03
+updated: 2026-10-15
 ---
 
 Morris Ketchum Jessup (born March 2, 1900) wrote four books on unidentified flying objects, the first of which, [[The Case for the UFO]], was published in 1955.[^1][^2] A copy of the paperback reprint carrying handwritten annotations in three inks reached the [[Office of Naval Research]] (ONR), and the [[Varo Manufacturing Company]] of [[Garland, Texas]] retyped it with the annotations in red type for a small number of copies, now called the Varo Edition or Annotated Edition.[^3] [[Gray Barker]] wrote that on the evening of April 20, 1959, Jessup died in his station wagon in a [[Dade County, Florida]] park from automobile exhaust piped in by hose, and described the death as a suicide; he added that after the death ufologists began delving into it and into its connection with the book.[^2]
@@ -54,9 +54,11 @@ Barker's preface to the 1973 facsimile gives a different sequence. He wrote that
 
 The annotations are in three hands, identified in the introduction as Mr. A, Mr. B and "Jemi," and are said there to refer to two kinds of space people, "L-M's" and "S-M's," the first described as peaceful and the second as not, as well as undersea cities and a "stasis neutral." The introduction proposes that the writers were Gypsies and that two of them may have been twins.[^3] Barker wrote that a copy had been given to the late [[Bryant H. Reeves]], an author published by [[Ray Palmer]]; that [[Riley H. Crabb]], director of [[Borderland Sciences Research Foundation]], told him he saw it while visiting Reeves in [[Virginia Beach, Virginia]], that Crabb said he and Reeves felt "under surveillance," and that a loaned copy Crabb posted to himself in [[California]] was lost in the mail.[^2]
 
+The Office of Naval Research states that the origin of the [[Philadelphia Experiment]] story dates to 1955 with the publication of *The Case for the UFO*, after which Jessup received correspondence from a Carlos Miquel Allende describing a 1943 naval experiment in Philadelphia, and that in 1956 a copy of the book with hand-written annotations was mailed anonymously to ONR, where two officers "took a personal interest in the book," showed it to Jessup, and arranged for a typewritten reprint of 25 copies. ONR's information sheet of September 8, 1996 states that "ONR has never conducted any investigations on invisibility, either in 1943 or at any other time," and the Naval Historical Center's statement of June 17, 1996 states that the ship named in the account, the USS Eldridge, was commissioned on August 27, 1943 at the New York Navy Yard and was "never in Philadelphia" during the period reviewed.[^6][^7]
+
 ### Death
 
-Barker's 1973 preface opens with the statement that "on the evening of April 20, 1959, an astronomer committed suicide in Dade County Park, Florida," that he inhaled automobile exhaust which he had run by hose from the tail pipe into his station wagon, and that he died "unheralded and almost unrecognized in his discipline."[^2] The [[Miami Herald]] of April 22, 1959 reported under the headline "Author A Suicide, Police Say" that Metro detectives said on Tuesday, April 21, that Morris K. Jessup, 59, an astronomer and author of several books on flying space objects, had committed suicide by asphyxiating himself; that his body was found on Monday, April 20, in his parked car at [[Matheson Hammock Park|Matheson Hammock]]; and that investigators said a hose ran from the car's exhaust pipe to the inside of the automobile. The item states that he was survived by his wife, Ruby, that he lived at 1531 Saragossa Avenue in [[Coral Gables, Florida|Coral Gables]], having moved there six months earlier, and that he was a onetime instructor at the University of Michigan and Drake University and the author of The Case for the UFO, a 1955 publication, with another book on outer space flight before his publishers at his death. It gives no time of death and does not mention Varo or Allende. The Herald calls the vehicle a car and gives Monday as the day of discovery; Barker calls it a station wagon and gives the evening of April 20 as the time of death.[^6] Barker added that a "tradition of bad luck or strange circumstances" attached to owners of the Varo Edition: a house destroyed by fire, the heart attack of Captain [[Edward J. Ruppelt]], former head of [[Project Blue Book]], "allegedly shortly after he read a borrowed copy," and the early death of the author [[Robert Loftin]]. He wrote that "except for the deaths, this is purely hearsay."[^2] Barker also wrote that "at least two national magazine articles explored Jessup's death and his connection with the book," and that [[Brad Steiger]] published reduced reproductions of three pages in [[Saga]] magazine for November 1967, in the article "Fantastic Key to the Flying Saucer Mystery," from a microfilm copy owned by [[Stephen Yankee]].[^2]
+Barker's 1973 preface opens with the statement that "on the evening of April 20, 1959, an astronomer committed suicide in Dade County Park, Florida," that he inhaled automobile exhaust which he had run by hose from the tail pipe into his station wagon, and that he died "unheralded and almost unrecognized in his discipline."[^2] The [[Miami Herald]] of April 22, 1959 reported under the headline "Author A Suicide, Police Say" that Metro detectives said on Tuesday, April 21, that Morris K. Jessup, 59, an astronomer and author of several books on flying space objects, had committed suicide by asphyxiating himself; that his body was found on Monday, April 20, in his parked car at [[Matheson Hammock Park|Matheson Hammock]]; and that investigators said a hose ran from the car's exhaust pipe to the inside of the automobile. The item states that he was survived by his wife, Ruby, that he lived at 1531 Saragossa Avenue in [[Coral Gables, Florida|Coral Gables]], having moved there six months earlier, and that he was a onetime instructor at the University of Michigan and Drake University and the author of The Case for the UFO, a 1955 publication, with another book on outer space flight before his publishers at his death. It gives no time of death and does not mention Varo or Allende. The Herald calls the vehicle a car and gives Monday as the day of discovery; Barker calls it a station wagon and gives the evening of April 20 as the time of death.[^8] Barker added that a "tradition of bad luck or strange circumstances" attached to owners of the Varo Edition: a house destroyed by fire, the heart attack of Captain [[Edward J. Ruppelt]], former head of [[Project Blue Book]], "allegedly shortly after he read a borrowed copy," and the early death of the author [[Robert Loftin]]. He wrote that "except for the deaths, this is purely hearsay."[^2] Barker also wrote that "at least two national magazine articles explored Jessup's death and his connection with the book," and that [[Brad Steiger]] published reduced reproductions of three pages in [[Saga]] magazine for November 1967, in the article "Fantastic Key to the Flying Saucer Mystery," from a microfilm copy owned by [[Stephen Yankee]].[^2]
 
 Barker acquired an original copy in 1971 from a friend of Jessup to whom Jessup had given one, decided in July 1972 to publish, and issued a facsimile through [[Saucerian Press]] in 1973, stating the run would be no more than 500 copies.[^2] The transcription at the [[Internet Archive]] was prepared by the [[Quantum Future Group]] of Castelnau-Barbarens, [[France]], in 2003.[^2]
 
@@ -67,4 +69,6 @@ Barker acquired an original copy in 1971 from a friend of Jessup to whom Jessup
 [^3]: Unsigned "Introduction" to the Annotated Edition, in the same volume, pp. 7 to 9; Barker's preface states that the original gives no information on its authorship.
 [^4]: "Appendix: The first letter received by Mr. Jessup from Carlos Allende," and "Days Later," in M. K. Jessup, The Case for the UFO, Varo Edition, transcribed by the Quantum Future Group, Castelnau-Barbarens, 2003, from the Saucerian Press facsimile of 1973, pp. 15 to 18, https://archive.org/details/THECASEFORTHEUFOVaroEditionM.K.Jessup (djvu text, reread 2026-10-03).
 [^5]: Naval Research Reviews, vol. 9, no. 1 (January 1956), cover caption and "New Chief of Naval Research" and "Admiral Furth Goes Ashore," pp. 22 to 23, Office of Naval Research, https://www.onr.navy.mil/media/document/naval-research-reviews-vol-9-no-1-january-1956 (reopened 2026-10-03).
-[^6]: "Author A Suicide, Police Say," Miami Herald (Miami), April 22, 1959, p. 9, https://www.newspapers.com/image/619508003/
+[^6]: Office of Naval Research, "Information Sheet: Philadelphia Experiment," September 8, 1996, as published by the Naval Historical Center, https://web.archive.org/web/19981203102110/http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq21-2.htm.
+[^7]: Naval Historical Center, Department of the Navy, "The 'Philadelphia Experiment'," June 17, 1996, https://web.archive.org/web/19981203102110/http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq21-1.htm.
+[^8]: "Author A Suicide, Police Say," Miami Herald (Miami), April 22, 1959, p. 9, https://www.newspapers.com/image/619508003/