— Explorations
True Crime with an Alien Twist.
A Space Opera Gone Wrong.
Mark Richards is a life prisoner who was found guilty of the murder of Richard Baldwin. He once dreamed of an Arthurian Kingdom in a crime that became known as the Pendragon Plot and described as Murder In Camelot. He now asserts that he was – or is – a captain in the secret space command.
Captain Mark Richards is more than a title or a piece of stolen valor. It is part of his identity. His claimed adventures includes remarkable stories of battles with aliens and interplanetary intrigue. Mark has also shown the softer side of Raptors who love chocolate and antiques.
The claims made by Mark have been told on videos, blogs, podcasts, web sites, MUFON meetings and conferences. His former wife, Jo Ann Fawcett (Richards), has been a featured speaker at numerous events. He has been interviewed numerous times by Kerry Cassidy (Project Camelot) who introduced him to many under the Total Recall banner. She considers him to be one of the most important whistleblowers and a national treasure. Indeed, Cassidy calls it a “classic case of the government framing someone who they feel may be turning against them from within the military.” That alone would warrant our attention if it were true.
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At the very least, the tales presented here challenge fundamental notions of history, science, and culture. Were Werner Von Braun and Disney cloned? (Cassidy, Second interview.) Do the reptilians back ISIS and meet in grottos under the Vatican? (Cassidy, Third Interview). Was there really a 1952 “ambassadorial visit” by Prince Nagadraconis, a raptor whose species was originally from Earth, at Hamilton AFB in Marin County, California? (Knights of the Cold War.) Are there really 50,000 earth troops currently battling aliens in the Orion sector? (Cassidy, 11th Interview.)
Jo Ann Fawcett has pointed out that these matters are not fundamentally different from what many others advance: “Do they have physical proof? If they don’t, are they being persecuted?” Yet, that there are a number of people who tell alien tales or who write about a secret space program does not make them immune from critical thought. Rather, it is all the more important to insist upon integrity and research standards. As Jack Brewer reminds readers, “It starts and ends with standards of evidence.”
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In recent years we have seen an explosion of conspiracy from QAnon and other sources. Any number of claims have been advanced relating to UFOs and aliens — the Roswell Slides were presented as the ultimate smoking gun and when that quickly exploded the advocates simply reinvented themselves or ignored the issue and were welcomed on the circuit. A UFO convention gave a lifetime achievement award to a researcher who uses discredited techniques based on hypnosis and brought “hybrids” on stage. We watched claims rise and fall without missing a beat — or even end up in court. Some have cited the work of Leslie Kean, who mistook flies and fireballs for UFOs, while others hailed writers who describe 57 alien species. (See Robert Sheaffer, Bad UFOs, “The New Yorker’s Credulous Article on Pentagon UFOs.”)
To sort through this is no easy task. Ultimately, it is not enough to simply assert that something is true. Carl Sagan once observed that extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. This in turn requires documentation and access to the source material. As former MUFON director James Carrion warned,
Make sure that you check their source. Make sure you check every single fact. You better be a fact checker, because if you’re not a fact checker, you’re gonna be at the recipient end of disinformation, hoaxes and just being led down the primrose path that a lot of ufologists find themselves.
(The UFO Trail, James Carrion to Podcasters: Deception Inherent to Ufology.”)
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The importance of checking sources is made apparent here. When Jo Ann paid to have Mark “honored” on a national museum aviation wall, she wrote “All records classified.” This is not the final answer. Jack Murphy, a former member of the special forces, writes that claims shrouded in secrecy must be treated with skepticism:
Phonies are everywhere these days and being a CIA fraud is the best of all because you can always claim that your background is Majestic-12 super-top-secret. “You see, I was a NOC, so all my records are sealed. That’s why I can’t provide a single shred of evidence to back up my claims.” Being fake CIA is so much better than being fake Special Operations because you can actually verify our tridents, long tabs, and scrolls. Moreover, the CIA won’t go after you because that would put them in a position where they are confirming or denying people who may or may not be clandestine officers or assets. They would rather have a bunch of frauds running around rather than put themselves in a position where their actual clandestine people could be outted. . . .
The public should be extremely skeptical of people claiming to have participated in high-speed CIA operations that sound like something out of a movie. The person talking openly about such things is almost certainly full of it, and if they are not, they are so narcissistic that you don’t want anything to do them.
Jo Ann has written, “Just as in any criminal case, it is not the defendant’s job to prove innocence, but the prosecution’s task to prove guilt.” (Dragonhill News.) That is true of our justice system before guilt has been established at trial. It is not true about claims that are advanced about alien contact, participation in a secret space program, or even the underlying crime after conviction. The case against Mark was proved to a jury. It is now his burden to show otherwise.
Under any standard it is up the claimant to provide at least “some” evidence. Without at least some credible evidence there is really nothing that can be discussed.
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Mark states that critics have no care of the constitutional protections given free speech: “They see only that I have presented a thought that they do not agree with, and they believe that I should be silenced at any cost.” (Dragonhill News, May 2019.) Just to be clear, this site affirms that he has every right to present his story. That story, however, is subject to review.
The information here may be read as a journey into true crime or various misadventures and tales, but there are also object lessons. In some ways, Mark’s place in the annals has been dwarfed by what came after it was first advanced. Although Kerry Cassidy and others continue to assert his importance, he has retreated away from public view. At the very least, it provides a gateway into how claims should be analyzed and how testing total recall is necessary.
To Mark’s credit, he has maintained that his exploits happened in real time rather than a “20 year out and back” story that some have adopted to state that they were returned to their lives with no break in time after being part of the secret space program. Therefore, we look at whether Mark’s story was possible given what can be known about his personal history. We start from the beginning with the stories of Mark’s family, which ultimately takes us to Pendragon, a murder in Camelot, the secret space command, the Dulce base, friendship with alien raptors, and more. Perhaps it also leads to The Dill Factor.
With that, the Adventures begin with the Lineage of Mark Richards.
The views expressed here are own and we do not necessarily endorse any quoted statement or linked site. Comments, questions, further information that can be added to this site, or supporting documentation — especially from those who knew Mark, Kerry Cassidy or Jo Ann Fawcett – are welcome.
“Documenting Captain Mark Richards Since 2011”
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