Forbidden Science Dispatches #4B

James McDonald the UFO Scientist, Betsy McDonald the Socialist, and the Surveillance of 1970s American Activists

Read Dispatch #4A here.

Read Dispatch #1 here.

Revolutionary fervor, rampant infiltration and surveillance, as well as a permeating (but justified) paranoia clearly defined the late 60s and early 70s. Although one would expect these topics to be far away from the UFO issue, there is some curious overlap in one of Vallee’s later journal entries. James E. McDonald was a meteorology professor at the University of Arizona who had been one of the most vocal proponents for a serious scientific study of UFOs throughout the late 60s. Vallee had numerous interactions with McDonald in the first volume of Forbidden Science and the two seemed to have a bit of a contentious professional relationship, Vallee calling him a “bull in a china shop” on multiple occasions.¹ “McDonald, who is fast becoming the darling of the ufologists, is only another demagogue,” Vallee writes in July 1966.² Nevertheless, McDonald served as an important and critical voice in UFO matters throughout the era, often letting his negative opinions of official explanations and investigations be loudly known. Vallee was kinder in his later foreword in McDonald’s biography, writing of McDonald and J. Allen Hynek: “They shared in the certainty that one day science would take notice, and that its very fabric would be altered irreversibly when it began to understand the UFO phenomenon with all its implications.”³

McDonald would eventually blind himself in one suicide attempt but succeed in another, shooting himself on June 13^th, 1971 in the middle of the Arizona desert. His death has been often attributed to getting too close to the truth of flying saucers and being murdered by the American government—at least for some UFO fanatics. While aspects of the death are indeed suspicious, McDonald was a tortured and desperate man. Vallee writes of McDonald’s apparently fraught relationship with his wife Betsy: “Jim killed himself out of frustration and love. His wife had gone headlong into politics. She belonged to a radical leftist group, not unlike the Venceremos at Stanford. They gave out weapons to Black revolutionaries.”⁴ McDonald in turn threw himself headlong into the UFO problem but did so “out of despair,” according to Vallee, with “no humor (nor) ability to distance himself from what he was studying.”⁵ Vallee’s implication seems to be that McDonald’s suicide was due to a multitude of factors, but that Betsy’s radical political activity was major catalyst. She was indeed highly politically active, her obituary in the Arizona Daily Star stating that “she worked in the civil rights, antiwar, labor, and immigrant movements, and was a member of the Socialist Workers Party” and remained so until her death in 2015.⁶ Regarding Vallee’s claim that the SWP armed Black revolutionary groups: Would you be surprised to learn that one party member who did so was the now notorious FBI informant Richard Aoki? In fact, according to a 2012 article, Aoki gave Black Panther founders Huey Newton and Bobby Seale “some of their first guns and firearms training.”⁷ Relatedly, James and Betsy McDonald had hosted two Black Panthers in their Tucson home in 1969. Ann Druffel recounts this visit in her biography of McDonald, Firestorm:

Betsy was a supporter and member of the Socialist Workers Party. Besides her other causes, she regarded the Black Panthers movement, in its early days, as part of the civil rights struggle. A few months later, she decided that she didn’t want to be involved any longer. McDonald did not participate actively in this cause, but when two Black Panthers came to Tucson, early on in their movement, Betsy had invited them to stay at their home. McDonald talked with them far into the night, asking questions about their philosophy, their plans and their progress. The Panthers slept with their guns at hand, explaining that government agents sometimes broke into places where they were housed.⁸

Indeed, both McDonalds noted that they were being surveilled during this visit. Druffel writes: “Betsy has a sense of humor about it all. ‘The surveillance car was so open, just so blatant,’” she recalled.⁹ Even more mysterious observation vehicles would appear later on, cars without license plates following James McDonald around Tucson. According to Druffel, McDonald “accepted the strange cars into his life and continued on.”¹⁰ While he and fellow UFO researchers assumed this surveillance was due to the study of flying saucers, there were other elements, including Betsy’s activism, that could have been the root cause.

The only other place I have seen Vallee’s journal entry on the McDonalds discussed is Robert Sheaffer’s Bad UFOs blog where he helpfully links to James McDonald’s FBI file obtained via FOIA request by John Greenwald.¹¹ These pages reveal that, in private, Betsy McDonald was even more radical than stated elsewhere. Amidst a bevy of redactions in a 1971 FBI document, an anonymous informant tells the FBI that Betsy “was overheard telling a group in Tucson (…) that she favored violence, if necessary, to achieve the goals of Students for a Democratic Society.”¹² Another “confidential source in a position to know” told the FBI that James McDonald was considering divorce because of Betsy’s activism, indicating that someone likely in the couple’s social circle was informing on them.

McDonald himself existed as a constant bugbear for the Air Force, arguing against the location of a Tucson Titan missile site for fear of nuclear contamination as well as speaking out about the damage to the ozone layer that supersonic transport planes could cause—both issues that threatened the perpetual motion of the military-industrial complex. In his earlier life, McDonald had signed a petition for the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, which urged President Kennedy to “reverse the State Department policy of hostility towards Cuba.”¹³ He openly corresponded with the Soviets—including one person connected to the country’s intelligence apparatus—about the UFO question, communication that the FBI took issue with. Vallee too found McDonald’s approach “bumbling” in this instance.¹⁴ Robert Sheaffer writes that while the Bureau concluded his activities were innocuous, they were not completely without concern. An FBI agent noted:

In view of his background and (redacted, possibly Betsy’s) long time leadership in "New Left" activities in the Tucson area, it is quite probable that Professor McDonald would be highly susceptible to an approach made by a Soviet intelligence, particularly concerning research done in his field, of atmospheric physics.¹⁵

Indeed, the FBI file contains an ample number of reasons why Dr. McDonald or his wife might have been monitored—and both of the McDonalds thought they were being surveilled. His death, a probable suicide, aroused the suspicions of UFO researchers who suspected he was being killed for being too close to the truth. But what if his passing had more to do with the McDonalds’ activism and Jim’s constant conflict with the military than it did with UFOs?

A piece of Bosco Nedelcovic’s testimony to Rich Reynolds in 1978 that has bothered me from the beginning is his claim that “if someone were to check the deaths of Jessup, Edwards, Ruppelt, and, so he heard, McDonald, they might uncover something as shattering as the 1960s assassinations.”¹⁶ Many of these deaths bear no telltale signs of an assassination. As Reynolds writes in the endnotes, their only common linkage is UFOs and the causes of death were different. Ruppelt and Edwards died of unsuspicious heart attacks, albeit Ruppelt at a rather young age. In the case of the death of M.K. Jessup, which has been much ballyhooed as part of a UFO coverup with little evidence—it appears to be a clear suicide. McDonald too had a turbulent emotional life to the extent that an end result of suicide would not be surprising. And yet, McDonald is a case where government assassination cannot be rendered completely out of the question—if one takes a couple tablespoons of salt with this mode of inquiry.

Vallee wrote in 1966 that McDonald did “not have Hynek's subservient attitude towards power (or) his obsequiousness towards the military.”¹⁷ Indeed, his lack of fear in confronting the military establishment combined with his and Betsy’s activism might have placed a big target on his back for observation by three letter agencies. By 1970, Druffel writes, McDonald “displayed open anxiety that the CIA might be monitoring him.” With his job at the University of Arizona, where “the name of the CIA agent on (…) campus was well known to activists and was a subject of subtle jokes,” it is not out of the question that McDonald was being actively surveilled.¹⁸ The question then becomes whether or not this possible surveillance had anything to do with his death. A future installment might get into further detail on the death of James McDonald to determine if there is any evidence that Nedelcovic was correct. Curiously, while he lists off the deaths of Ruppelt, Jessup, and Edwards with little note, McDonald is the only example where Nedelcovic implies he heard about something fishy directly. Regardless, in lieu of shadowy government factions infiltrating and monitoring radical groups—as in the cases of the SLA and Venceremos organization—something going awry in a covert investigation of the brash and confrontational James McDonald or his radical activist spouse might provide a possible answer to a suicide that leaves many questions.

Thank you for reading Getting Spooked. If you’ve enjoyed what you’ve read, consider recommending it to a friend. Become a paid subscriber to directly help the continuation of this publication and you will be granted access to over a dozen archived articles. I also started a referral program that rewards archive access to those who share the newsletter with others. Email me at gettingspooked@protonmail.com with any questions, comments, recommendations, leads, or paranormal stories. You can find me on Twitter at @TannerFBoyle1 or on Bluesky at @tannerfboyle.bsky.social. I also recently started an Instagram account (@gettingspooked) which may facilitate more images relevant to the articles. This week I watched the delightfully unhinged Elves, a 1989 Christmas horror film that includes occult Nazi experiments and a Santa cop portrayed by Dan Haggerty. A high recommendation for anyone wanting an idiosyncratic experiment in batshittery this holiday season. Until next time, stay spooked.

1. Vallee, Jacques. Forbidden Science 1: A Passion for Discovery – The Journals of Jacques Vallee 1957-1969. San Antonio: Anomalist Books, 1992. Page 323.

2. Ibid., page 221.

3. Vallee, Jacques. “Foreword.” Firestorm: Dr. James E. McDonald’s Fight for UFO Science, by Ann Druffel. Columbus: Wildflower Press, 2003. Page xiv. https://archive.org/details/druffel_firestorm_james_mcdonald_fight_ufo_science/.

4. Vallee, Jacques. Forbidden Science 2: California Hermetica – The Journals of Jacques Vallee 1970-1979. San Antonio: Anomalist Books, 2008. Page 111.

5. Ibid.

6. “Obituaries: Betsy Anne McDonald.” Arizona Daily Star (Tucson). 13 December 2015. https://www.newspapers.com/article/arizona-daily-star/136944604/.

7. Rosenfield, Seth. “FBI Files Reveal New Details About Informant Who Armed Black Panthers.” NBC Bay Area. 7 September 2012. https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/fbi_files_reveal_new_details_about_informant_who_armed_black_panthers/1927667/.

8. Druffel, Ann. Firestorm: Dr. James E. McDonald’s Fight for UFO Science. Columbus: Wildflower Press, 2003. Page 338. https://archive.org/details/druffel_firestorm_james_mcdonald_fight_ufo_science/.

9. Ibid., page 419.

10. Ibid., page 420.

11. Sheaffer, Robert. “FBI Releases its Files on Dr. James E. McDonald.” Bad UFOs: Skepticism, UFOs, and the Universe. 8 November 2014. https://badufos.blogspot.com/2014/11/fbi-releases-its-files-on-dr-james-e.html.

12. United States, Federal Bureau of Investigation. Dr. James E. McDonald FOIA release, document from 18 March 1971. Page 31. Uploaded by The Black Vault. https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/fbifiles/paranormal/jamesmcdonald.pdf.

13. Ibid., document from 27 February 1962. Page 63.

14. Vallee, Jacques. Forbidden Science 1: A Passion for Discovery – The Journals of Jacques Vallee 1957-1969. San Antonio: Anomalist Books, 1992. Page 323.

15. Sheaffer, Robert. “FBI Releases its Files on Dr. James E. McDonald.” Bad UFOs: Skepticism, UFOs, and the Universe. 8 November 2014. https://badufos.blogspot.com/2014/11/fbi-releases-its-files-on-dr-james-e.html.

16. Reynolds, Rich. “The Villas Boas Event.” The UFO Reality. 11 January 2006. https://web.archive.org/web/20070614143010/http://ufor.blogspot.com/2006/01/villa-boas-event.html.

17. Vallee, Jacques. Forbidden Science 1: A Passion for Discovery – The Journals of Jacques Vallee 1957-1969. San Antonio: Anomalist Books, 1992. Page 197.

18. Druffel, Ann. Firestorm: Dr. James E. McDonald’s Fight for UFO Science. Columbus: Wildflower Press, 2003. Page 428.