William S. “Bill” English is, maybe, the forgotten “Bill” of 80s and 90s UFOlogy. his claims were extraordinary. His story was exciting and entertaining. Featuring clips from some classic UFO radio programming, and from the infamous 1989 MUFON conference, this was a fun episode to put together and we think it’s a bit of a sleeper.
Special thanks to some folks who pointed us in some directions and provided some background: Adam Gorightly, Jack Brewer of the UFO Trail, and one of our behind-the-scenes heroes, Jack Shepherd.
Reading and resources
Revelations: Alien Contact and Human Deception at Amazon
THE GRUDGE/BLUE BOOK INCIDENT by William S. English
John Lear’s summary of English’s claims (via archive.org)
“10 UFO Stories from the Vietnam War Era” at Mysterious Universe, which recounts English’s “B-52” recovery story with no indication of English’s other experiences in the UFO realm.
Curt Collins’s interview with English, which is mostly about the Cash-Landrum case, but also refers to the Grudge/BB 13 material
More info on the people and events discussed in this episode can be found in our episodes on the early internet UFO scene, OH Krill, and Bill Cooper.
The Saucer Life 
This may be my favorite episode so far! I had never heard of this guy before. English’s story about the rocket attack was hilarious! (Of course, I’m assuming it never happened, otherwise it was a terrifying tragedy.)
Question: In your opinion, does/did Blue Book Report #13 really exist?
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I assume, at some point, there must have been! Now what it was all about and why it “disappeared” is anyone’s guess.
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Bill English’s account of the crashed B-52 sounds very similar to an account of a B-52 crash by then Sargent Clifford Stone. Stone’s account differs a little from Bill’s. In an interview with Kerry Cassidy he said “They were on a bombing mission over…. I have no way of knowing this but I would assume they were on a bombing mission over North Vietnam. The damage to the craft was as a result of anti-aircraft fire at the B-52. I mean the damage was that type. And it was used for conventional bombing. And where I said that we went in, we went from there by helicopter. But it was just like some giant hand had grabbed the plane out of mid-air and just set it on the jungle floor. And that’s what we were interested in”.
I wonder who came up with the story first???
Now as usual with these things the story got more detailed and expanded. In a later interview with Paola Harris, Stone was accompanied by another guy, Joseph Zeromski, called his “collaborator” (ghost writer?), and Joseph said this:
“He was supposed to check out a B-52 crash. Now the interesting thing is that usually when an airplane crashes, it’s going to go through the trees, and aircraft is going to be all over the place. When we fly over, we see a wing here, a fuselage over there. Here, the B-52 was solid. Clifford asked himself, why is this craft all in one piece? He saw greys on the other side of the plane, and they asked him why he was there. He heard it in his head. Apparently they were startled to see him. There was shooting going on all around them, but they were able to stop the bullets. He said they had the technology to be able to stop time. So he told them, if you can stop time, you need to get out of the way or you’re going to get killed”.
So now not only do we have gray aliens added to the story but they seem to have “Jedi” powers as well.
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Oh, wow. I’d heard bits and pieces of Stone’s stuff over the years but hadn’t put together the…ahem…*similarities* to English’s story!
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You can take my word for it. It did happen.
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You can find a couple Stolen Valor sites by military and ex military that dispute English’s claims of being a Green Beret and former POW. They call him a phony. They don’t play politics. If you are claiming valor real people died for and they detect BS they will smoke you out. They pulled his service record and discovered he never attained a rank higher than PFC and the closest he got to SE Asia was being based in Germany. He was not in the military in the 1960s. Interesting too when English ran for the Senate his own campaign page was silent about his supposed career as a Green Beret and military officer. Typically those are things you WANT to lead with when running for high political office. Of course, when you run for Senator you can’t really lie for long about your military history.
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Yes! Bill Cooper went after English for this, of course Cooper was a special kind of unreliable!
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Cooper was an Alcoholic and a murdering SOB who ultimately shot a Deputy Sheriff in the head and killed him before he, himself was gunned down. Cooper attempted to go after me, but I shot his as down when I sent a copy of his discharge papers to the host of a radio show we both were on. Cooper started crap and I asked the host if he had gotten the envelope I had overnighted to him. I then asked him to open the envelope and read what was in it. Cooper hung up.
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It’s true that there are a couple of Stolen Valor sites that have claimed I am a phony. However, none of these sights have posted my reply to them or the fact that there were glaring discrepancies to my 201 files (which I gave them permission to obtain. The biggest is that I attended JOTC (Jungle Operations Train Course) in Germany. especially since JOTC was taught in Panama at the School of the Americas operated by the 8th Special Forces Group. Nor do they mention the fact that I was able to present witnesses and their DD214s that verified my assignments to both the 8th Group and 5th Group. Carl Anderson, a local newspaper reporter who was ready to rip me a new a– called the Stolen Valor website and presented one of the local witnesses DD214 and intentionally left out his commendations and assignments, just giving them his name and service number. Within 30 minutes they came back and said that he was never in Vietnam, and was a cook whose only overseas assignment was France. Master Sargent Beckly spent over 20 years in the service, and I point out that the French had booted US Forces out of France many years before Vietnam. I also point out that Vietnam was originally a French Colony. Beckley’s DD214 showed that he had the Vietnam service ribbon plus several other commendations and metals. Mr. Anderson dropped the story immediately. As for my foray into politics, it was Congress not the Senate and my military service was never mentioned for several reasons. Among them was this Stolen Valor BS. Have a nice day, and I wish you people would get your facts straight. So far over the years, I have been in the Army, Air Force, and Navy. As for Cliff Stone, What a load of crap. And as for Bill Cooper, Jesus! God Almighty!
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