William Milton Cooper (May 6, 1943 - November 5, 2001) was an American writer, shortwave broadcaster, militia supporter and conspiracy theorist. Cooper came to public awareness in the late 1980s.
Cooper's earliest notoriety developed among UFO enthusiasts, as he promoted a variety of conspiracy theories regarding UFOs, Area 51, the Kennedy Assassination, and much more. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Cooper claimed that John F. Kennedy was shot by the limosine's chauffeur, using bullets filled with blowfish poison.
Cooper is perhaps best known for his book Behold A Pale Horse, which details many of his claims about various conspiracy theories. The title is a quote from The Book of Revelation in the New Testament. The book includes the text of The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, a famous anti-Semitic hoax document.
Jerome Clark writes that "Cooper told his lurid and outlandish claim as if it were so self-evidently true that sources or supporting data were irrelevant." (Clark, 1998, 162)
Cooper claimed to have been a Naval intelligence officer, and in many ways, his accounts were similar to earlier UFO conspiracy theories: UFOs had crashed, the ships and their alien pilots had been recovered, and the government made agreements with aliens. There were further details as well, in Cooper's self-published 1989 screed "The Secret Government: The Origin, Identity and Purpose of MJ-12".[1]
Cooper's 25-page pamphlet was crammed full of lurid claims: UFOs had been crashing on Earth by the dozens since the mid-1940s, and Secretary of Defense James Forrestal threatened to publicize the fact and was killed to prevent him from doing so; In 1954 "His Omnipotent Highness Krlll"—leader of a species living on a planet orbiting Betelgeuse—appeared on earth and suggested a treaty: The aliens would abduct humans and wipe their memories of the event in exchange for sharing their technology. U.S. officials feared the aliens' superior technology, and felt they had no choice by to accept the conditions offered by the aliens. Aliens quickly broke the treaty, kidnapping and killing humans and livestock. The Cold War, Cooper says, was largely a facade: The United States and the Soviet Union were actually in close collaboration, both to combat the aliens and to pave the way for a totalitarian one world government. The Majestic 12 committee began selling drugs to raise funds to combat the aliens, reports Cooper, and President John F. Kennedy was assassinated when he objected. Cooper borrowed liberally from Alternative 3, a tongue-in-cheek Anglia Television prank program.
Cooper manages to involve Our Lady of Fatima, the Antichrist, and an impending nuclear World War III in 1999. He predicted that Jesus would return in 2011.
Many ufologists who were striving for legitimacy ignored Lear and Cooper, yet both men were popular speakers on the UFO lecture circuit, and Cooper expanded his account into the book Behold A Pale Horse.
An outspoken critic of what he considered US government abuses, Cooper was charged with various crimes, including tax evasion from 1992 to 1994, and bank fraud for giving false information on a loan application.
Cooper reportedly met with Timothy McVeigh, who sought Cooper's advice or support. When McVeigh refused to offer details of his plans, Cooper dismissed him.
On November 5 2001, Cooper was shot and killed by Apache County, Arizona Sheriff officers who were serving an arrest warrant after Cooper reportedly threatened passersby near his home in Eagar, Arizona. Cooper was 58 years old.
Videography
William Milton Cooper also produced videos, including
- Assassin Unmasked
- Behold A Pale Horse
- CNN Interview With William Cooper
- Dimensions in Parapsychology
- Kennedy - The Sacrificed King
- Lansing Michigan
- Luxor
- Project Redlight I
- Project Redlight II
- The Secret Government
- The Branch Davidian's Last Will and Testament
References
- Barkun, Michael (2003). A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America. University of California Press. ISBN 0520238052.
- Jerome Clark, The Ufo Book: Encyclopedia of the Extraterrestrial, Visible Ink, 1998, ISBN 1578590299