Jackie Gleason, Richard Nixon, and the
Florida Aliens 

In February 1973 President Richard Nixon took a trip to Florida. On February 19, 1973, according to White House Records, the President met on the 18th green at the Inverness Golf and Country Club with Jackie Gleason. He had come to help to open a charity golf tournament run by Gleason. If some rumored stories are to be believed, Nixon also came to Florida in 1973 to show Jackie Gleason bodies that were not from this planet.

Gleason was considered on of the foremost television comedians of the 20th century producing the Jackie Gleason Show for almost 20 years, and playing the character of Ralph Kramden on the top rated Honeymooners TV show in the mid 50's. He appeared in 21 movies, and produced 20 music albums from 1953 to 1969.

Jackie Gleason and President Nixon had a number of things in common and became good friends. Gleason was a strong supporter of the Republican party. Gleason lived in Florida, and Nixon had a compound on Biscayne Bay only miles away. In addition to being avid golfers, both had high regard for the FBI. Nixon had in April 1937 applied to become an agent with the FBI, and Gleason worked for the FBI as an official "contact" for the Special Agent in Change (SAC) in Miami where he lived for the last twenty years of his life.

One of the other things they had in common, according to Gleason, was a large collection of UFO books. Both were fascinated by the subject.

Gleason had long been a fan of UFOs. He was a subscriber to the newsletter of the group Just Cause (Citizens Against UFO Secrecy). Gleason had a collection of 1700 books on parapsychology, UFOs, and the unknown. These were donated to the University of Miami by his third wife when he passed away in 1987. Gleason had even built a house in Peekskill, N.Y which he called " The Mother ship." Gleason had architects built everything in the round like a flying saucer. Most of his furniture was round, and the garage, called the "Scout Ship" was also round, like a flying saucer.

Biographer William A. Henry III in his book The Life and Legend of Jackie Gleason described his view of Jackie Gleason’s interest in the unknown:

Jackie Gleason had a lifelong fascination with the supernatural. Everything that Shirley MacLean was to explore in her exotic life and best-selling book had already been explored by Gleason...He would spend small fortunes on everything from financing psychic research to buying a sealed box said to contain actual ectoplasm, the spirit of life itself. He would contact everyone from back-alley charlatans to serious researchers like J.B. Rhine of Duke University and, disdaining the elitism of the scholarly apparatus, would treat them all much the same way.

Gleason was a frequent insomniac. He would stay up high the night reading (or rereading) some of the hundreds of (UFO and paranormal phenomena) volumes in his library.

Gleason did not see a UFO till later in his life when he was living in Florida. In 1955 at the high of his popularity with the American people he stated during a magazine interview:

I have never seen a flying saucer anywhere personally but have read published flying saucer literature. Most of this literature is ridiculous, but amongst the trash there are some undeniable points that can not be refuted even by the United States Government.

Gleason let the public know that he was interested in UFOs, but he was very secretive about how strong his belief was. While living in New York he invited Sheila MacRae for a visit to his saucer shaped home in Peeksville. MacRae replaced Audrey Meadows as the "Honeymooners" Alice Kramden when Jackie Gleason moved his TV shows to Florida in the sixties. There he showed her his massive collection of books on spiritualism, the occult, and UFOs. " I’m kind of a nut on the subject, " he told Sheila "Hey, maybe ‘nut’ isn’t the right word, eh? Think of the fun the columnists and the writers for TV Guide would have if they got a load of all this, hunh?"

There were a few people who Jackie trusted who he would discuss the subject with. One of these people was Bob Considine. Jackie Gleason’s publicist James Bacon, in his book How Sweet it Is: The Jackie Gleason Story, described how Gleason was "always arguing" about UFOs with Bob Considine, columnist for the New York Journal-American. These UFO debates took place in Gleason’s favorite watering hole - Toots Shor’s Restaurant and Bar in New York City.

Gleason would tell Considine how small UFOs had been seen by both sides during World War II, and that four Presidents of the United States had told him about these UFOs. Considine didn’t believe Gleason until one day General Rosie O’Donnell, then head of the Strategic Air Force, over heard the two arguing. He came up and said to Considine, ‘Jackie’s right.’

According to Gleason's second wife, Beverly McKittrick, Gleason apparently had done more than talk and golf with his friend Richard Nixon while in Florida. McKittrick stated that one night Gleason had returned home very shaken. It was during the Nixon February 1973 visit to Florida. She related that President Nixon had taken Jackie to a heavily secured area at Homestead Air Force Base where he had viewed the remains of small aliens in a top secret repository. McKittrick related this story in an unpublished manuscript of Gleason called "The Great One."

Larry Bryant, the editor of Just Cause, the newsletter Gleason had a subscription to, filed a Freedom of Information Act Request with Homestead Air Force Base. Bryant requested documentation on the top secret repository and Gleason’s visit there to see the alien bodies. The Air Force Base replied that " no such records existed." Bryant also sent an advertisement to the Homestead Air Force Base Newspaper soliciting information anyone on the base could provide about the alien bodies or Jackie Gleason’s visit to see them. The public affairs officer at Homestead denounced the Bryant advertisement and "forbade its publication."

At the same time Bryant wrote Gleason providing him with a draft affidavit. He asked Gleason to execute the affidavit so it could be used as part of a growing accumulation of evidence Bryant was collecting in preparation for taking the government to court to release all information on alien crash retrievals. Gleason did not reply.

About the same time as Bryant was approaching Gleason to provide an affidavit about his experience at Homestead, Gleason was approached by the film industry about the rumored story. Bryant recounted the story;

"Though I never did hear from Gleason," said Bryant, " I did learn that he had been contacted by a third party in the film industry. At this confrontation, Gleason chose to neither confirm nor deny the story, saying that he would prefer not to discuss it all . The way I see it Gleason easily could have set the record straight in reply to my proposal or in an explanation to the inquisitive film-industry representative. If the story was a fabrication or misinterpretation on the part of his wife, he now had every opportunity to say so. That he chose not to merely deepens the mystery."

Shortly before his death in 1987, one story says Gleason did finally confirm the story about seeing the bodies at Homestead. The person who Jackie Gleason told the story to was Larry Warren who a member of the Air Force Security Police at RAF Bentwaters. Bentwaters was one of two bases in England where in late December 1980, three days of bizarre UFO incidents took place. Many US airmen stationed at the base were involved in sightings, radar trackings, pictures, and videos.

Larry Warren had been involved in events on the second night of sightings. He saw an object land in a clearing of the forest, and along with a number of other airmen saw three being come out of the craft. The case became known as the Rendlesham Forest Case, and was considered by many to be "the most significant military - UFO incident in the history of Great Britain."

Larry Warren’s encounter with Jackie Gleason occurred in May 1986, shortly before Gleason death in June 1987. CNN and HBO had been running stories on the 1980 Rendleham Forest case. "Through mutual friends who knew members of his family," recounted Warren, " I was told that Gleason would like to talk to me privately in his home in Westchester County, and so the meeting was set for a Saturday when we would both have time to relax."

Timothy Green Beckley, a New York City author, produced an excellent account of the meeting between the two men:


Well folks, I am just tickled pink to present this one! This article deals with the ole folklore of Jackie Gleason and President Nixon, who were not only supposedly good buddies but UFO believers as well. This one gets me because I remember not only the Honeymooners as a kid but also the Jackie Gleason Show in later years. Maybe UFOs had always played a part in the Great One's life ? If you recall, Ralph Kramden was always threatening to send Alice : "To the Moon Alice !" "One more time and it's to the moon ! " With all respect to a great entertainer I now bring you "Jackie Gleason & The Little "Men From Mars"  



Jackie Gleason & The Little "Men From Mars"
by Timothy Green Beckley

Way back in the mid-1960s, I got a letter in the mail from Jackie Gleason Productions, Hollywood, Florida, ordering a copy of a mimeographed booklet I had put together relating to UFOs. This, to me, was confirmation of what I had heard rumors about for a long time ... that "the Great One" was personally involved in researching UFOs. Supposedly - and I've since found out that this is true - Gleason had one of the greatest UFO book collections in the world. This is where the tale gets a bit wilder. A story circulated by Gleason's ex-wife, Beverly, has Jackie actually viewing the bodies of several aliens who died when their craft crashed in the Southwest.

The story was carried originally in the National Enquirer, and though Beverly Gleason later confirmed it to members of the press who were able to track her down, independent confirmation of Gleason's supposed experience could - for the longest time - not be certified.

Now with the striking revelations of a young man who knew Gleason personally, it can safely be said that such an event did take place...

Larry Warren was an Airman First Class stationed at Bentwaters Air Force Base in England (a NATO installation staffed mainly by US. servicemen) when an incredible series of events took place over Christmas week of 1980. A UFO was picked up on radar and subsequently came down just outside the perimeter of the base in a dense forest.

On the first of several nights of confrontation with the Unknown, three security police ventured into the area across an eerie-looking object hovering just above the ground. One of the MPs was mesmerized by the UFO and was unable to move for nearly an hour. While in this mental state, he received some sort of telepathic message that the craft would return. For the next few nights, up to 80 US. servicemen, British bobbies, as well as civilians from some nearby farms, witnessed an historic event. According to Larry Warrenwho stood within feet of this craft from another world-three occupants came out of the ship and actually communicated with a high ranking member of the U.S. Air Force.

This close encounter at Bentwaters has become the subject of several books (see "From Out Of The Blue", Jenny Randles, Inner Light Publications) and has been given wide publicity on CNN, Home Box Office and more recently "Unsolved Mysteries." Warren has, in a sense, become somewhat of a celebrity himself as he remains in the public eye, willing to talk about what he observed.

"Jackie Gleason was interested in hearing my story first hand," Warren offers as a means of explaining how he met the famous comic in May, 1986. "At the time I was living in Connecticut and both CNN and HBO had run pieces on the Bentwaters case. Through mutual friends who knew members of his family, I was told that Gleason would like to talk with me privately in his home in Westchester County, and so the meeting was set for a Saturday when we would both have some time to relax'". After being formally introduced, the two men ventured into Gleason's recreation room complete with pool table and full-size bar. "There were hundreds of UFO books all over the place," Warren explains, "but Jackie was quick to tell me that this was only a tiny portion of his entire collection, which was housed in his home in Florida." For the rest of the day, UFO researcher and UFO witness exchanged information. "Gleason seemed to be very well informed on the subject," Larry says, "as he knew the smallest detail about most cases and showed me copies of the book "Clear Intent" that had just been published, as well as a copy of "Sky Crash", a British book about Bentwaters that was published, actually, before all the details of this case were made public. I remember Gleason telling me about his own sightings of several discs in Florida and how he thought there were undersea UFOs bases out in the Bermuda Triangle."

But it wasn't till after Warren had downed a few beers and Gleason had had a number of drinks -"his favorite, Rob Roys"- that conversation really got down to brass tacks. "At some point, Gleason turned to me and said, 'I want to tell you something very amazing that will probably come out some day anyway. We've got em!' 'Got what', I wanted to know? 'Aliens!' Gleason sputtered, catching his breath." According to Warren, Jackie proceeded to tell him the intriguing set of circumstances that led him to the stunning conclusion that extraterrestrials have arrived on our cosmic shores. "It was back when Nixon was in office that something truly amazing happened to me," Gleason explained. "We were close golfing buddies and had been out on the golf course all day when somewhere around the 15th hole, the subject of UFOs came up. Not many people know this," Gleason told Warren, "but the President shares my interest in this matter and has a large collection of books in his home on UFOs just like I do. For some reason, however, he never really took me into his confidence about what he personally knew to be true... one of the reasons being that he was usually sur- rounded by so many aids and advisers." Later that night, matters changed radically, when Richard Nixon showed up at Gleason's house around midnight. "He was all alone for a change. There were no secret service agents with him or anyone else. I said, 'Mr. President, what are you doing here?' and he said he wanted to take me someplace and show me something." Gleason got into the President's private car and they sped off into the darkness - their destination being Homestead Air Force Base. "I remember we got to the gate and this young MP came up to the car to look to see inside and his jaw seemed to drop a foot when he saw who was behind the wheel. He just sort of pointed and we headed off." Warren says that later Gleason found out that the secret service was going absolutely crazy trying to find out where Nixon was. "We drove to the very far end of the base in a segregated area," Gleason went on, "finally stopping near a well-guarded building. The security police saw us coming and just sort of moved back as we passed them and entered the structure. There were a number of labs we passed through first before we entered a section where Nixon pointed out what he said was the wreckage from a flying saucer, enclosed in several large cases." Gleason noted his initial reaction was that this was all a joke brought on by their earlier conversation on the golf course. But it wasn't, as Gleason soon learned. "Next, we went into an inner chamber and there were six or eight of what looked like glass-topped Coke freezers. Inside them were the mangled remains of what I took to be children. Then - upon closer examination - I saw that some of the other figures looked quite old. Most of them were terribly mangled as if they had been in an accident."

According to Larry Warren's testimony (regarding Gleason's lengthy conversation about UFOs and space visitors), "I forget whether he said they had three or four fingers on each hand, but they definitely were not human...of this he was most certain!" For three weeks following his trip with Nixon to Homestead Air Force Base, the world famous entertainer couldn't sleep and couldn't eat. "Jackie told me that he was very traumatized by all of this. He just couldn't understand why our government wouldn't tell the public all they knew about UFOs and space visitors. He said he even drank more heavily than usual until he could regain some of his composure and come back down to everyday reality." Larry Warren is convinced that Gleason wasn't lying to him. "You could tell that he was very sincere - he took the whole affair very seriously, and I could tell that he wanted to get the matter off his chest, and this was why he was telling me all of this." And as far as Larry Warren was concerned, the Great One's personal testimony only added extra credibility to his own first hand experience with aliens while he was in the service.

"Jackie felt just like I do that the government needs to 'come clean,' and tell us all it knows about space visitors. It time they stopped lying to the public and release all the evidence they have. When they do, then we'll all be able to see the same things the late Jackie Gleason did!"

Hopefully this day may arrive soon.

The obvious question that has been asked about this incident is how Nixon, the most protected man in the world, was able to get away from his secret service detail, get a car, and head off to Homestead with Jackie Gleason. The story seems at first totally impossible.

The Director of the Secret Service under President Clinton, Lewis Merletti, claimed that the idea of a President escaping his secret service agents only happens in the movies. In response to a question by reporter Joan London about the possibility of the President escaping his protection to go out and secretly do something Merletti claimed, " all Hollywood, there’s no sneaking out. It has never happened."

Marty Venker, a Secret Service agent who worked with Merletti under Presidents Ford and Carter, however, tells a different story. In his book Confessions of an Ex-Secret Service Agent tells that not only can the President disappear, but it has happened. Venker stated that in the exact year of the Homestead incident with Gleason, 1973, Nixon had tried to cut his secret service protection. Venker also stated that it was not uncommon for Nixon to try to elude his secret service detail. The agents working on the Nixon Presidential detail had been warned about it.

Venker even recounted one occasion when Nixon was able to ditch his secret service guards while at his California compound:

Nixon always felt that he was overprotected. He felt that he couldn’t pick his nose without some agent taking notes. In 1973, he tried to cut his detail by a third. ‘I don’t like it and my family doesn’t like it.’ he said.

"I’d be warned of the lengths Nixon would go to elude us. One time he snuck out of the San Clemente compound. His valet, Manolo Sanchez, drove past the agents in a car with Nixon stretched out in the back seat under a blanket. Nixon just wanted to go to a restaurant. But some reporters saw him and phoned the house. They wanted to know was Nixon was up to. The secret service told them, he’s not at any restaurant, he’s here at home. But then the agents found he was gone they chased him down.

Nixon was very familiar with Homestead Air Force Base which was only minutes from his Biscayne Bay compound. Every time Nixon flew south to his "Southern White House" Air Force One would land at Homestead. In Nixon’s first term as President he traveled to his Key Biscayne compound 55 times and spent 118 nights there.

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Gleason, on the other hand, lived in nearby Miami, and owned his own golf course, the Inverrary Country Club nearby in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

There is no proof that Nixon escorted Jackie Gleason to view alien bodies at Homestead, but everything checked out indicates it could very well have happened. It would have been very easy in terms of distance for the Gleason/Nixon alien event to have occured.

 

This author wrote Gleason's third wife when Jackie Gleason died to ask for her assistance in clarifying the story. She wrote back one simple hand-written line, "So sorry we can not be of any help to you."

 

 


Jackie Gleason's Encounter With Alien Bodies!
How Secret Is It?

The late comedian Jackie Gleason's second wife, Beverly, tells a very strange story that she swears is the truth. One evening in 1973, she wrote in an unpublished book on their marriage, Gleason returned to her
Florida home badly shaken.

After first refusing to tell her why he was so upset, Gleason confided that earlier in the day his friend President Richard Nixon had arranged for him to visit Homestead Air Force Base in
Florida. Upon his arrival armed guards took Gleason to a building at a remote location on the site.

There, Gleason, who harbored an intense interest in UFOS, saw the embalmed bodies of four alien beings, two feet long, with small bald heads and big ears. He was told nothing about the circumstances of their recovery. He swore his wife to secrecy, but after their divorce
Beverly freely discussed the story.

In the mid-1980s, when ufologist Larry Bryant sued the
U.S. government in an attempt to get it to reveal its UFO secrets, he tried without success to subpoena Gleason to testify. Gleason never commented on Beverly's report.

 


Note: The following reports were filed after several years of trying to locate the subject, Beverly Gleason McKittrick, ex-wife of the famous comedian Jackie Gleason. Her comments would help clarify a story that has become a UFOlogical legend: The alleged Richard Nixon / Jackie Gleason encounter with pickled aliens. In July of 2003, she was located at her home in
Easton, Maryland, and her remarks were most interesting. - KY

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INTERVIEW with BEVERLY GLEASON

 

This morning I spoke by telephone with Beverly Gleason McKittrick, an ex-wife of the late comedian Jackie Gleason. I explained to her that I was interested in the progress of her book and if she could talk about Jackie Gleason's claim of seeing alien bodies at Homestead Air Force Base in Florida.

 

She said that the book never came out as she had 'stopped writing' of it. She said she was 'glad to get out of it' as Jackie Gleason did not seem pleased with her quoting him on the aliens in Florida. She said that there was not much additional to tell as the whole story regarding Jackie Gleason and the aliens, as far as she knew, had already been printed anyway.

 

"Esquire Magazine interviewed me after our separation," she said, "and I talked about how Jackie told me about seeing dead aliens in Florida. I think it was sometime in '74 when this happened. When I said that it was because he told me."

 

"After the interview was published, Jackie was upset about the story being public. He called and said he didn't appreciate me giving the interview, and that's when I started to wonder if the story was 'iffy.'

 

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"The reason I became 'iffy' about it is because I wondered if it was really true, I mean... I believed it the whole time. I bought the story hook, line and sinker. But if it was true, then why did he get so upset about it?"

 

Beverly went on to explain how Jackie came to tell her of his experience.

 

"Jackie had been out very late one night I did not know who he was with," She said. "He told me where he was that same evening, he said he had been in South Florida with President Nixon to see some dead aliens there and I believed him, he was very convincing.

 

"He and Nixon were in contact quite a bit and I'm not sure how that was arranged, but it seems that their meetings were set up by an associate of Nixon's. After he got back, he was very pleased he had an opportunity to see the dead little men in cases, he explained to me what they looked like and he was still talking about it the next day."

 

Beverly explained that during her interview with Esquire Magazine, she made the statement about Gleason's claim to see dead aliens and afterward things between her and Jackie turned sour.

 

"We were on the verge of divorce, but everything was okay until it came out in Esquire," she said.

 

She informed that Gleason never did deny the story.

 

Regarding her announced intention to write a book, Beverly again said that she abandoned the project due in large part to Gleason's objection to her comments about him seeing the aliens.

 

"I just made that one statement about the UFOs and it appeared in Esquire and I guess a few other places and he didn't like that and I thought, I just can't go through with this. Let him live his life. So I never wrote the book."

 

I thanked Beverly for talking with me and asked if it would be okay for me to call her back later if I had more questions, she agreed. That concluded our conversation.

 

Special thanks to Donnie Blessing, Grant Cameron and David Rudiak for their help in providing contact information for Beverly Gleason McKittrick.

 

Filed,

July 9, 2003 

KENNY YOUNG

 

Follow-up With Beverly Gleason

 

This afternoon I placed a second call to Beverly Gleason at her home in Easton, Maryland. We spoke for about 15-minutes and I asked if she could recall, for certain, if Esquire Magazine was the first to print her story about Richard Nixon showing comedian Jackie Gleason, her late husband, alien bodies after a golf game while at Homestead Air Force Base in Florida.

 

Beverly said that she is certain that it was Esquire Magazine that first printed the story, and went on to describe how the article was the front page cover story of Esquire, carrying a picture of Jackie and some text regarding UFOs. She also said that the reporter who did the story still works there, and she could only recall his first name perhaps being "Ben."

 

She said that in the years after the Esquire report, other publications picked up the story - some of them she thought, directly from Esquire.

 

Going back to the Gleason/Nixon meetings for golf in Florida, she couldn't remember any specific date they met but said that her relationship with Jackie Gleason was good during that time frame. She said that she had even met with President Nixon herself, meeting him near a pool and having a drink with him.

 

She said that later, at the time of the Esquire article, her relationship with Jackie was not good.

 

"I'll be honest with you, about the time the article appeared Jack and I were breaking up," she said. "And when he saw the Esquire article that just finished everything."

 

I asked her about the reports she had planned to write a book and whether or not she ever prepared a manuscript.

 

"At the time Jack came home after his meeting with The President, he was so giddy and excited about seeing these little men," she said, "but in the years afterward I began to ask myself if any of this could really be true or if he was just telling me that... perhaps having been 'out' with someone?"

 

I asked her if she could recall any of his words, a more complete description of the 'little men' or any information such as where they came from or crashed, and Beverly laughed and reminded me of how many years ago this was. She then answered by saying: "you would be best off to find that Esquire article, that probably contains my closest recollection of anything he said."

 

I told Beverly that in addition to doing research, I also was involved in writing and producing television documentaries. I asked her if she would feel comfortable going 'on camera' with this story and said that it would be tremendous to preserve her comments and experience on videotape. She said that she was not interested in going on television and thought the story concerning the 'little men' should be authenticated first. I said that the only real 'authentication' would come if the government announced having the bodies and she said "I guess you're right, but I guess I just don't want to go on camera with this."


I thanked her for talking with me and she again suggested I find the Esquire Magazine article.


Filed,

August 6, 2003

Kenny Young

 


At the age of 38 Kenny Young is dead. Kenny conducted two interviews with the ex-wife of comedian Jackie Gleason concerning the story that Gleason had been given access to dead alien bodies at Homestead Air Force Base