The Bosco in Brazil, Pt. 2
The Scoriton Affair, Paul Bennewitz, and Targeted Individuals of the Cosmic Variety
In the previous installment, we discussed DOD/USAID/CIA employee Bosco Nedelcovic’s conversation with UFO researcher Rich Reynolds. During their first chat, Nedelcovic claimed to have taken part in a CIA operation dubbed Mirage under the guise of USAID that drugged, kidnapped, and ran medical tests on South American civilians. One of these operations was described in eerily similar terms to the abduction of Antônio Villas-Boas, a farmer who many assumed was taken and tested by extraterrestrials. But Nedelcovic’s claims did not stop at Villas-Boas, he also mentioned the Scoriton Affair as an intelligence operation.
Scoriton is a small town in Devon, England where groundskeeper/handyman Ernest Arthur Bryant claimed to have met three humanoids who came from a flying saucer. His experience is treated mostly with light ridicule by ufologists, reminiscent of the benevolent space brothers made popular by the contactee, George Adamski. The figures were all dressed in what appeared to be “diving gear” and upon removing their helmets are described as:
(Having) very long foreheads, very blue eyes, blond hair, squat noses, and blueish mouths. They had no facial hair. Bryant stated that they wore one-piece silvery-grey suits and that the soles of their shoes were about one and a half inches thick and made of spongy material. They wore belts with petal-like symbols. (…) (They) had four fingers on each hand, widely spaced. Their helmets were not padded and had a type of Perspex window. There were also two coils on the outside at ear level with black tubing.1
Bryant claimed that one of the beings was named Yamski (phonetically similar to Adamski) and that (like Adamski’s contact Orthon) the beings were from Venus. Among other supposed corroborating details were metal pieces the beings identified as wreckage from the plane of Thomas Mantell, a Kentucky Air National Guard pilot who crashed while chasing a UFO.2 Yamski also uttered the words Des or Les to Bryant which investigators interpreted as referring to Adamski’s The Flying Saucers Have Landed coauthor Desmond Leslie.
Investigator Norman Oliver was one of the main British UFO Research Organization’s representatives who probed the Scoriton Affair and Bryant’s claims. Unlike his co-investigator Eileen Buckle, Oliver saw Bryant’s assertions as suspect and released several articles debunking the case. Oliver even put out a book, Sequel to Scoriton, that called into question Buckle’s The Scoriton Mystery and its acceptance of all facets of Bryant’s story. The skeptical researcher noticed how “claimed events were, so to speak, reported in reverse order,” and that many of the coincidental evidence Bryant put forth would only be notable to someone well-versed in ufological events. Indeed, Oliver was told by Bryant’s widow that Bryant concocted the affair using “his considerable reading of UFO and occult literature and his extensive knowledge of Adamski’s claims.”3 A later Fortean Times article has the widow recounting that the Scoriton story was originally told to her by Bryant as “the basis for a science fiction script he was creating.”4 Ernest Arthur Bryant died of “a fast-growing brain tumor” in 1968 which many speculated “was induced by alien contact.”5 As we shall see, there may have been the tiny possibility of truth to this speculation.
Returning to Rich Reynolds conversation with DOD employee Bosco Nedelcovic: The Scoriton Affair comes up in the second phone call despite being the subject that put Reynolds in contact with Nedelcovic in the first place. Nedelcovic minces no words, stating that he recalls the Scoriton Affair coming up in a 1969 briefing where “the CIA reported the death of a man in 1968 from excessive experimentation.”6 This ominously vague statement is explained in further shocking detail. Nedelcovic stated the events stemmed from a supposed 1964-1965 project called “Exeter” in order “to correspond to contemporary episodes planned for Exeter, New Hampshire in the United States and Exeter in England.” The mention of Exeter, New Hampshire seems to imply the UFO activity spotted by locals in the weeks leading up to and on September 3rd, 1965 were orchestrated by the US government.
Aside: The sightings are covered extensively in John G. Fuller’s 1966 book Incident at Exeter. The idea of Fuller being a possible CIA asset is explored in several other works, with Nick Redern noting that Fuller met with CIA officers who ran MK-ULTRA projects. His books on topics such as the Exeter incident, the abduction of Betty and Barney Hill, and the Pont-Saint-Esprit affair could have conceivably been running cover for US government projects—suggesting more outlandish explanations (e.g. extraterrestrials) rather than human involvement.7 Nedelcovic himself says that “the Hill episode in New Hampshire was a CIA event” among others.
Nedelcovic continued to explain that during the purportedly orchestrated UFO sightings in England, “a man reported a sighting and dropping of material to one of the British UFO groups.” Nedelcovic states that this UFO group (likely BUFORA) had CIA operatives in their ranks and they were dispatched to ask the man about his sighting. “While passing the information to Lakenheath through the London CIA office as part of the Exeter project, someone decided to subject the man to further UFO experiences.”8 The process to induce UFO experiences went as follows:
The man was taken to London where he accepted the offer to have his story verified by the use of a “truth seeking drug.” During this session a doctor administered experimental drugs used to induce specific hallucinatory material into a subject’s brain processes. In this case(,) the man was also stimulated by microwave transmissions so that material induced would be retained upon awakening as if a real event. Further contacts were established for the man with other UFO groups to monitor the results of experimentation and to determine the pattern followed by UFO study groups in such cases. (…) Later on (Nedelcovic) saw reports that also brought attention to the “microwave accident” with admonitions to CIA and NSA operatives about the injudicious use of microwave technology. He remembers no restraints on drug experimentation. (…) Nedelcovic said he saw reports of many such episodes(,) but this was the only one he remembers as having a death attributed directly to the experiment itself.9
Nedelcovic claiming that the Scoriton Affair ended with the death Ernest Arthur Bryant via unethical experimentation by intelligence agencies is a decidedly different story than the accepted one of Bryant dying of cancer.
While Nedelcovic contended that the Scoriton Affair culminated in the death of a British civilian by drugs and microwaves might seem outlandish and is difficult to corroborate, his description of Bryant’s targeting is eerie given what would occur in the decade following his discussion with Rich Reynolds. Paul Bennewitz, the UFO researcher and private pilot who was fed disinformation by AFOSI agent Richard Doty, went through similar trials and tribulations. While the story is long and complicated, Mark Pilkington’s book Mirage Men: A Journey in Disinformation, Paranoia and UFOs, its subsequent documentary film, Greg Bishop’s Project Beta, and even Adam Curtis’ Hypernormalization have touched on the Bennewitz story if the reader would like further resources. For the purposes of this exploration, Bennewitz’s ordeal will be put simply: He stumbled across classified government projects and communications while looking for UFOs and intelligence agencies used him as a conduit to further UFO experiences and sow the seeds of disinformation and disruption in the broader UFO community. From Greg Bishop’s Project Beta:
An alphabet soup of agencies were now (late 1980s) all actively spying on Bennewitz to see if his shenanigans had anything to do with their projects, or if he was violating any national security laws. The CIA and the Albuquerque office of the FBI were involved. The NSA set up shop in a temporarily vacant town house across the street, and Bennewitz would occasionally see a woman entering and leaving the place. He also said that he could see cameras and "sense their sweeps on my equipment."10
Like Bryant in Nedelcovic's version of the Scoriton story, the operation against Paul Bennewitz involved multiple government agencies--the former was supposedly a joint CIA-NSA operation. During these “sweeps” Bennewitz felt “a stinging sensation across his body” and got the impression that he was being scanned. Fellow researcher and Doty stooge Bill Moore reported the same. Author Adam Gorightly notes that this description seems to fit the purported function of a directed-energy microwave weapon developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory, the Active Denial System.11 Microwave beams again—was Nedelcovic describing an operation that was done by intelligence agencies in Scoriton or was he describing a prospective operation for UFO believers in the future?
I am no professional when it comes to the science behind microwave technology, so I don’t know if it causing brain cancer in Bryant’s case is plausible, but it appearing as an element in both Nedelcovic’s expose of UFO operations and the Paul Bennewitz affair is a captivating coincidence. I am also not totally sold on their complete safety…
Ernest Arthur Bryant was said to be drugged during his induced UFO experiences—Bennewitz too, according to Bill Moore, “swore that ‘they’ (meaning the aliens) were coming through his walls at night and injecting him with hideous chemicals which would knock him out for long periods of time.”12 Whether this was a paranoid fantasy, (god knows that Bennewitz had reason to be paranoid,) or if intelligence agents were drugging him, the similarity to Nedelcovic’s recollection of Scoriton is disconcerting.
The goal of the operations against Bennewitz aren’t totally clear, but likely possibilities were that agencies would see what Bennewitz knew about their projects, disrupt the pesky UFO community, and test out some new military technology all in one fell swoop. Nedelcovic too claims that operation against Bryant was to test the reaction of UFO groups. The resulting “excessive experimentation” also gives the impression that they were testing the limits of novel drugs and technology. Even the semi-skeptical Norman Oliver, while likely unaware of Nedelcovic’s claims, got the sense that the hoaxers (Bryant not included) had the “laudable aim (…) to test our (BUFORA) investigators.”13 While all the perpetrators that Oliver singles out are members of UFO groups, it is worth considering that many of the perpetrators of the Bennewitz targeting were members of UFO groups under intelligence agency directives.
Do I personally think Nedelcovic is telling the truth about the Scoriton affair? I definitely side with the idea that it was a hoax, but not one perpetuated by the government. Too many investigators involved in the case make no mention of anything Nedelcovic reports from the supposed CIA briefing on Bryant’s targeting and subsequent death. Even Bryant’s wife said the whole narrative was complete fiction and mentioned nothing of intelligence agency involvement. And yet, Nedelcovic’s recollection is disturbingly similar to the mental torture that would be thrust upon Paul Bennewitz less than a decade later. The faked UFO events, the drugging, the microwave technology—it is an unsettling prelude to where actual intelligence operations involving UFOs would go. The lingering question of all of this: What was Nedelcovic’s purpose in telling Rich Reynolds all of these things? Was it a disinformation campaign? Was it sensitive material that Nedelcovic thought was true and revealed as a way to cope with his unhappiness at the DOD? Was Nedelcovic simply mistaken?
I strive to answer some of these questions next time, where we will do the following: Check on Bosco’s background, answer what he was doing before and after talking to Rich Reynolds, and examine the weird places his name crops up. As always, all future installments will be free of charge, but if you like what you read and want to support the cause, share with your friends, or select a paid subscription (even a single month would warm my heart). Feel free to follow me on Twitter @TannerFBoyle1. (Currently set to private but will accept most follow requests.)
Oliver, Norman. “What DID Happen at Scoriton? Part 1.” New BUFORA Journal 1, no. 11 (Spring/Summer 2004): Page 13. http://files.afu.se/Downloads/?dir=Magazines%2FUnited%20Kingdom%2FBUFORA%20-%202002-2005%20New%20BUFORA%20Journal
Project Blue Book’s investigation concluded that Mantell likely died chasing a top-secret Skyhook balloon.
Clark, Jerome. Extraordinary Encounters: An Encyclopedia of Extraterrestrials and Otherworldly Beings. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2000. Page 276. Available here.
Randles, Jenny. “The First Gentleman of BUFORA.” Fortean Times, no. 420 (July 2022): Page 31.
Ibid.
Brewer, Jack. The Greys Have Been Framed: Exploitation in the UFO Community. Self-published, 2016. Page 175-177. Available here.
Ibid.
Bishop, Greg. Project Beta: The Story of Paul Bennewitz, National Security, and the Creation of a Modern UFO Myth. New York: Paraview, 2005. Page 181. Available here.
Gorightly, Adam. Saucers, Spooks, and Kooks: UFO Disinformation in the Age of Aquarius. Brisbane: Daily Grail Publishing, 2021. Page 54-57. Available here.
Bishop, Greg. Project Beta: The Story of Paul Bennewitz, National Security, and the Creation of a Modern UFO Myth. New York: Paraview, 2005. Page 268.
Oliver, Norman. “What DID Happen at Scoriton? Part 2.” New BUFORA Journal 1, no. 12 (Autumn 2004): Page 13. http://files.afu.se/Downloads/?dir=Magazines%2FUnited%20Kingdom%2FBUFORA%20-%202002-2005%20New%20BUFORA%20Journal
Really enjoying these articles! I happen to be reading Vallee’s Passport to Magonia right now and a case mentioned in the book jumped out at me after reading these articles. It was a sighting on Sep 30, 1954 in France by a man named Georges Gatay. It has some similarities to the Vilas-Boas case like him feeling a “peculiar drowsiness” and becoming confused. seeing a figure “dressed like a diver” and seeming very low-fi. The UFO was a shining dome hovering above the ground with rotating wings or blades above it, flying in a jerky manner and makes a loud whistling noise, seems like a helicopter to me. Gatay also suffered from insomnia, strong headaches, and loss of appetite afterwards. While not super extreme, there seemed to be a few similarities that I thought were worth mentioning. Apologies for the very long comment, excited to read further articles.