William Leonard Moore

Early Career and UFO Involvement

William Leonard Moore (born October 31, 1943) became fascinated with UFOs during his teenage years and eventually transitioned from a career in education to full-time UFO research and writing. After graduating from Thiel College in Pennsylvania in 1965 with a humanities background, Moore taught language and humanities at various high schools. By the late 1970s, he had become Arizona state section director of the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) and gradually abandoned teaching to pursue investigative writing on paranormal and UFO subjects.

The Roswell Incident and Philadelphia Experiment Books

Moore achieved mainstream prominence through two co-authored books with bestselling author Charles Berlitz. The Philadelphia Experiment - Project Invisibility (1979) explored the alleged 1943 USS Eldridge naval experiment, while The Roswell Incident (1980) became the foundational popular narrative for the 1947 New Mexico crash. The Roswell Incident tracked down original newspaper accounts and eyewitness testimony from the Roswell incident, presenting the case that the crash involved an extraterrestrial spacecraft and that the U.S. government had recovered physical evidence. Though criticized by some scholars as relying on "second- and third-hand accounts" with "unwarranted speculation," the book proved commercially successful and essentially defined public understanding of Roswell for decades.

MJ-12 Documents and Intelligence Connections

In May 1987, Moore joined Jaime Shandera and Stanton Friedman in circulating documents purporting to show the existence of "Majestic 12," a high-level secret group allegedly established by President Truman to oversee UFO and extraterrestrial matters. The documents, which Shandera claimed to have received photographed on film in 1984, became central to UFO disclosure narratives for years. Moore spent two and a half years attempting to authenticate the materials. The MJ-12 documents proved controversial: the FBI declared them "completely bogus," and the National Archives identified discrepancies in the so-called "Cutler memo." Many ufologists now regard them as an elaborate hoax, though their origins remain disputed.

Moore's role in MJ-12 was facilitated by contact with an intelligence source operating under the code name "Falcon," later identified as Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) officer Richard C. Doty. This connection proved significant—and damaging to Moore's credibility.

The Disinformation Admission and Legacy

At the July 1989 MUFON conference, Moore stunned the UFO research community by publicly admitting that he had engaged in "disinformation" activities against physicist and UFO researcher Paul Bennewitz on behalf of AFOSI. Moore's stated goal had been to misdirect Bennewitz's investigation into alleged UFO activity near Kirtland Air Force Base by feeding him false information through the "Falcon" channel. This confession severely compromised Moore's credibility and raised serious questions about whether other Moore-distributed information, including the MJ-12 documents, might also have been part of a counterintelligence operation.

Despite the credibility damage, Moore remains a historically significant figure in UFO research. He helped shape the modern Roswell narrative and ensured that the MJ-12 documents received serious scholarly and public attention, even if their authenticity is now largely rejected. Whether Moore was a genuine researcher deceived by government handlers, an opportunist seeking publicity, or an active disinformation agent remains contested among UFO historians.