Morris Ketchum Jessup (1900-1959)
Morris Ketchum Jessup, born in Rockville, Indiana on March 20,1900, serves in WW1, attaining the rank of sergeant at the young age of 18. He obtains his undergraduate degree and his Master's degree and he teaches astronomy and mathematics while working on his doctorate from the University of Michigan. When an opportunity arises in the 1920s for him to travel to South Africa, to work at the Lamont-Hussey Observatory, operated there by the University of Michigan, he jumps at it. On his return to America, he writes his doctoral dissertation based on his South African experiences. He also joins the University's solar eclipse expedition to Mexico in 1926. He publishes his dissertation in 1933, and appears to be on his way to as much success in his own field as his famous uncle had attained in his.
It seems to have been during the Great Depression that Jessup's once brilliant future begins to unravel, or at least to change direction. In spite of having published his dissertation, he apparently is never awarded his doctorate. He goes to Brazil to study sources of crude rubber for the Department of Agriculture. Jessup joins a Carnegie Institution's expedition to study Mayan ruins in Central America. He goes to Mexico to study Aztec ruins. During this period, he begins to think that extraterrestrials have visited the Earth and have perhaps had a hand in the construction of the massive stone ruins that he is studying.
There doesn't seem to be much information about what Jessup does during World War II. By 1950, he is consumed by his interest in ancient ruins and UFOs. In the early 1950s, he travels to Mexico again at his own expense to study Aztec ruins and unusual geological formations. By 1954, he runs out of money and is back in the U.S., moving to Washington D.C., where he takes a job as an auto parts sales clerk: this might seem an ignominous job for one who aspires to be an astronomer, but for Morris it is a job that allowes him plenty of free time to research and write a book based on his speculations about UFOs and ancient ruins, the book for which he would be best known, The Case for the UFO (1955).
Despite his book not being high quality contents, it is published at an ideal time, following books by Frank Scully, Kenneth Arnold, and Donald Keyhoe. It sells well enough for a paperback edition to be issued later that same year. Morris begins a lecture tour to publicize the book, and it looks like, at last, he might have found some success. Later in 1955, Jessup receives an weird fan letter from a reader of his book. Morris is very busy working on his second book and promoting the first, so he pays little attention to the letter, written with different colours, which was signed... Carlos Miguel Allende (1925-1994)!
Morris doesn't know it, but this letter is just the beginning of a series of events that would result in his own death. In 1956, short after The Case for the UFO is a paperback, Major Darrell Ritter of the Office of Naval Research receives an unusual package in the mail. It is a manila envelope addressed to Admiral N. Furth, Chief, Office of Naval Research. The envelope, postmarked Seminole, Texas, 1955, has Happy Easter written across it in ink. Opening the envelope, Major Ritter finds the book, annotated in the margins with comments in inks of three different colours. Major Ritter mentions the book to Office of Naval Research Special Projects Officer George W. Hoover, who invite Jessup in 1957 to talk about the book: amazed, Jessup notices similarities between the letter and the book annotations. Hoover and Sherby send the annotated book and the letters to Varo Manufacturing of Garland, Texas, and ask them to reproduce it. Varo produces between 12 and 127 (not sure about how many) mimeographed copies of the book, with the annotations in red, and with two of the Allende letters reproduced as appendices. Hoover and Sherby send Morris Jessup three copies of this special edition of the book, which is going to be the famous Varo edition.
Right after, in 1957, Jessup burns these books while he tries to accomplish his goal of funding another expedition to Central Mexico to study the strange craters he has found. However, in 1958, the sales of his second book, The Expanding Case for the UFO, aren't as promising and his publisher rejects several of his latest manuscripts. He's unable to find further financing for his Mexican expedition. He decides to make his living only from publishing, giving up on other projects. His wife just has left him, another financial crisis is to come.
Jessup moves back from Florida to Indiana. The Navy seems strongly interested in the annotated Varo books. In October 1958, Jessup attends a dinner with naturalist Ivan T. Sanderson, who will recall Jessup gives him and two friends copies of the book, for safekeeping purpose. Jessup looks like worried, conscious his life was out of control. From New York, he'd have gone to Indiana, instead he goes to Florida. In 1959 he writes suicide notes.
Jessup's body is found on the evening of April 20, 1959, slumped over the steering wheel of his car, parked in Dade County Park, not far from his house. A hose is attached to the exhaust pipe to convey carbon monoxide into the car through a window that has been sealed with rags. Still alive when found, he takes his last breaths before an ambulance can get him to the hospital
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