[Here
she be, Part 3! IF YOU HAVE NOT READ PARTS 1 & 2, well, it’d be silly to
consume the blow that follows.
Parts
1 & 2 set the stage for what is the reality as compared with the hoax of
the so-called Devil’s Triangle.
The
origins of this hoax bear directly on a series of Frontier Historical volumes
that many use in good faith to inform their knowledge of early frontier ways, Early
American history, and combat matters.
Again,
bear with me through Parts 1 & 2 where we set the stage for the Revelation
in Part 4. While, initially, this may seem to be nothing more than an
exploration of the hallmark case of The Bermuda Triangle, it has a direct link
to a blackmark on Frontier Historical Combat Research—practically every
resource I see on early tomahawk “fighting” and like Eastern Woodland Warfare
matters are implicated in this hoax. I know all this seems unrelated but stay
with me—the Warrior-Scholar will be rewarded. Now, dig in, as I’ve been putting
this together for a long time, a lotta work here and the revelation, well, stay
with me, you’ll see.]
[Oh,
and if it’s not already obvious, reading Part
1 & Part
2 is essential to understanding what follows, as the Timeline is continuous
in the official military records.]
“Science
must begin with myths and with the criticism of myths.”—Karl Popper,
Philosopher of Science
THE BIRTH OF THE LEGEND, THE ORIGIN OF LIES
Parts
1 & 2 definitively lay the case for the Tragedy of Flight 19 being a combination
of pilot error and poor weather conditions.
All
expert opinion, including pilots in Flight 19 itself agree—a bearing error was THE
causative factor.
Nothing
supernatural.
Nothing
extraterrestrial.
Nothing
mysterious.
Pilot
Error + Poor Weather. Period.
But…cold
hard facts never stand in the way of raging ignorance or cold-hearted cupidity.
Some
pervert narratives to feel like “They have the real skinny on life as opposed
to the rest of the sheeples.”
Some
know better but concoct lies to cash checks or enhance stature.
It
is the case now; it was the case then.
The Devil’s Triangle/Bermuda Triangle Heyday
1969
John
Wallace Spencer self-publishes a book titled, Limbo of the Lost. It
picks up on fragments of inferences about “mysterious” doin’s in the region and
concocts a book-length fact-free treatise on the fearsomeness of this region of
the Atlantic.
1970
The feature-length
documentary, The Devil’s Triangle takes the previously fringe belief to
a wider audience. The documentary makes an unknown myth/lie/cash-grab to a larger
audience. [For more on the odd trend in the 70’s of mendacious “documentaries”
see the superlative book Weirdumentary: Ancient Aliens, Fallacious
Prophecies, and Mysterious Monsters from 1970s Documentaries by Gary D.
Rhodes.]
1973
Mainstream publisher
Bantam cashes in on the public’s interest in this nonsense and publishes Spencer’s
previously little-known Limbo of the Lost as a wide-release paperback.
The public now has two
main pushes into the consciousness telling us the Devil’s Triangle is real!
A “documentary” and a
real-live book.
Others jump on the
lie-wagon.
1974
Sees the publication
of Charles Berlitz’s and J. Manson Valentine’s The Bermuda Triangle, which
goes on to sell five million copies worldwide, making it a bestseller.
That same year our
self-published Mr. Spencer returns to the fray with a new book, No Earthly Explanation.
The same year sees a
book also released to impressive sales, Richard Winer’s The Devil’s Triangle.
1975
Richard Winer writes a
follow-up The Devil's Triangle 2.
1976
Elwood D. Baumann
joins the book liars with another tome of lies also called The Devil’s Triangle.
1977
Richard Winer strikes
again with From The Devil's Triangle to The Devil's Jaw.
All purport to be full
of “Real-live factual reporting!”
The Book That Mattered
1975
Research librarian and
licensed pilot, Larry Kusche of the University of Arizona publishes The
Bermuda Triangle Mystery—Solved.
The book is a
devastating knockdown of all prior books and documentaries on the subject.
Mr. Kusche did what
the other authors did not.
He checked sources.
He conducted interviews.
He collated weather
data.
What he found was not just
misunderstandings of the truth, a failure of the layman to glean the true reality
of Atlantic weather, highs seas, the hazards of aviation and sea travel—he found
out-and-out lies that in no way, shape or form match the true record of events.
His book is manna for
all who are disgusted by, in the words of an Al Franken book title, Lies and the
Lying Liars Who Tell Them.
MONEY WHERE THEIR
MOUTH IS
Logic dictates that
those with money to lose would put the most research into knowing if a particular
region was conspicuously hazardous.
The insurance companies
that must pay out when losses occur have a bonafide skin-in-the-game reason to
know the truth and charge premiums or deny coverage accordingly.
So, what do the people
who have money to lose in this devastating region have to say?
In a letter dated April
4, 1975, written to Mary Margaret Fuller, editor of the always credulous
magazine Fate, the famous and respected insurer Lloyd’s of London had
this to say:
“According to
Lloyd's records, 428 vessels have been reported missing throughout the world
since 1955, and it may interest you to know that our intelligence service can
find no evidence to support the claim that the ‘Bermuda Triangle’
has more losses than elsewhere. This finding is upheld by the United States
Coast Guard whose computer based-records of casualties in the Atlantic go back
to 1958.”
So, the folks with
money to lose see no hazard.
The Coast Guard, folks
who risk their lives to search for and rescue others in hazardous conditions,
folks who would want to know if a particular region was more dicey than others,
they would most definitely want to know if there was anything particularly dangerous
about a region as they must send themselves into harm’s way.
Both entities call
bullshit.
There ya go.
The Bermuda Triangle,
The Devil’s Triangle—Bullshit.
WHAT’S THE HARM?
Some may see these
self-aggrandizing books as entertainment.
Some may see the reproduction
of lies as a harmless bit of fun.
I get that.
That is the view from
the spectator seats.
But…
Let’s assume you are a
family member of a one of the men who lost their lives in Flight 19.
A relative of those who
perished in the subsequent search/rescue attempts.
I ask you, if it were
your father, your brother, hell, your own legacy had you perished---how comfortable
would you be with someone perverting the record, skewing facts, manufacturing dialogue
for the mere sake of “mystery,” for the thrill of a moment’s entertainment for
strangers?
My father perished in
an exploding aircraft.
That was personal tragedy
enough.
I am grateful I did
not suffer any subsequent, “You know your dad was probably taken by aliens”
or “You know Mark, likely, your dad’s plane entered a dimensional wormhole”
or [Fill in the Blank with Gobbledygook Here.]
Grief is enough.
Grief is not entertainment.
Grief is not a sideshow
for hucksters.
THE QUESTION
Now some of you may be
asking yourselves, “Just a minute Old Man, is that it? I mean you make us
learn all about Flight 19, then you switch to the weirdly persistent myth of the
Devil’s Triangle as started in the 70s. What’s that go to do with combat
research?”
Great question, to
which I offer this question…
What is it that led
all of these mendacious authors [or at the very least shitty researchers] what
is it that led them down this path of lies at worst or fallacious assumptions
at best?
The answer to that
question will lead us to a single man.
A man who planted the
seed for this myth.
A man who planted far
more seeds of deceit in the realm of American Frontier History.
In Part 4, we will
name that liar and outline his plot of lies in two domains—The literature of
The Devil’s Triangle, and his 11 volumes of frontier history that many of you
may have on your shelves right now.
Resources
for Livin’ the Warrior Life, Not Just Readin’ About It
All
historically accurate and viciously verified!
The
Black Box Warehouse
https://www.extremeselfprotection.com/
The
Indigenous Ability Blog
https://indigenousability.blogspot.com/
The
Rough ‘n’ Tumble Raconteur Podcast
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