View source for William J. Birnes

{{short description|American novelist (born 1944)}}
{{Infobox person
| name        = William J. Birnes
| image       =
| alt         =
| caption     =
| birth_name  =
| birth_date  = {{Birth date and age|1944|11|07}}
| birth_place =
| death_date  = <!-- {{Death date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|YYYY|MM|DD}} or {{Death-date and age|Month DD, YYYY|Month DD, YYYY}} (death date then birth date) -->
| death_place =
| nationality = American
| education   = {{ubl|[[New York University]] ([[Doctor of Philosophy|PhD]])|[[Concord Law School]] ([[Juris Doctor|JD]])}}
| known_for   = [[UFO Hunters]]<br />[[UFO Magazine]]
| occupation  = {{flatlist|
* [[Author]]
* [[editor]]
* [[publisher]]
}}
}}
'''William J. "Bill" Birnes''' (born November 7, 1944) is an American [[author]], the incoming{{when|date=December 2019}} auditor for Solebury Township, Pennsylvania, the chairman of the board at Sunrise Community Counseling Center, and [[Ufology|ufologist]].<ref name="Talks">{{cite web|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gregory-weinkauf/ufo-hunter-william-j-birnes_b_946739.html/ |title= Bill Birnes Talks Aliens and ''Apollo 18'' |date= 4 September 2011 |publisher=huffingtonpost.com|accessdate=2015-08-30}}</ref>
== Education ==
Birnes earned a degree from [[New York University]]. In 1974, Birnes earned a [[Ph.D.]] in [[medieval literature]] from [[New York University]] with a dissertation on ''[[Piers Plowman]]''. Birnes earned a [[Juris Doctor|J.D.]] degree from [[Concord Law School]], a private online law school.<ref>Keppel, Robert D., Birnes, William J.[https://books.google.com/books?id=2dPxKC9Qs_cC&q=william+birnes&pg=PR12]. Academic Press, 2003, p. xii.</ref>
== Career ==
Birnes served as a Lily Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the [[University of Pennsylvania]] and taught literature and [[linguistics]] at [[Trenton State College]].<ref name="Coast">{{cite web|url=http://www.coasttocoastam.com/guest/birnes-william-j/6366/ |title= William J. Birnes Coast to Coast Guest |publisher=coasttocoastam.com|accessdate=2015-08-30}}</ref>
=== UFOlogy ===
Birnes believes that Earth has been visited by many different types of [[extraterrestrials]], and that pictures taken by [[NASA]] have been airbrushed to remove any evidence of alien activity.<ref name="Talks"/> Birnes speculates that NASA may have taken missions to the Moon after [[Apollo 17]], but these missions were kept secret from the public due to alien interference and new-found extraterrestrial artifacts. Birnes claims that NASA made three additional trips to the Moon; Apollo 18, Apollo 19, and Apollo 20. Additionally, he claims that the [[Apollo 13]] incident was actually an extraterrestrial attack meant to scare humans away from landing on the Moon.<ref name="askmen">{{cite web|url=http://www.askmen.com/top_10/celebrity/10-insane-facts-about-apollo-18-from-bill-birnes.html/ |title= Bill Birnes on Apollo 18 |publisher=askmen.com|accessdate=2015-08-30}}</ref>
Birnes's credibility was questioned when a UFO sighting over Morris County, New Jersey, on January 5, 2009, was later revealed to be the result of a hoax. The sighting was featured on an episode of ''[[UFO Hunters]]'', and Birnes dismissed reports that witnesses saw flares attached to balloons, claiming instead that the movement of lights ruled out the possibility of flares, "a theory "UFO Hunters" has already tested and proven implausible". But on [[April Fool's Day]] 2009, two college students, Joe Rudy and Chris Russo, admitted that they had deliberately launched balloons tied to flares near the local airport on January 5 as a "social experiment on how to create your own media event surrounding UFO sightings...to show everyone how unreliable eyewitness accounts are, along with investigators of UFOs."<ref name="livescience">{{cite web|url=http://www.livescience.com/5398-ufo-hoax-social-experiment.html |title=UFO Hoax Was a Social Experiment |date=2 April 2009 |publisher=livescience.com|accessdate=2015-08-30}}</ref>
=== Media ===
As a writer of popular nonfiction, he co-authored ''The Riverman'' with detective/academic [[Robert D. Keppel]] (1995), an account of serial killer [[Ted Bundy]]'s involvement in the apprehension of [[Green River Killer]] [[Gary Ridgway]]. The book was adapted into a [[made-for-TV film]] (2004) on [[A&E TV|A&E]]. As a UFOlogist, Birnes collaborated with [[Philip J. Corso]], on ''[[The Day After Roswell]]'' (1998), appeared on the [[History (U.S. TV channel)|History Channel]]'s [[television documentary]] series: ''[[UFO Files]]'' (2004–2007), ''[[Ancient Aliens]]'' (2009–2013), NASA's Unexplained Files and ''I Know What I Saw''. He starred in ''[[UFO Hunters]]'' (2008–2009) as leader of an investigative team of fellow ufologists,<ref name="history">{{cite web|url=http://www.history.com/shows/ufo-hunters/cast/bill-birnes/ |title=Bill Birnes - UFO Hunters Cast - HISTORY.com |publisher=history.com|accessdate=2015-08-30}}</ref> and later wrote a book by the same name documenting his experiences on the show.<ref name="macmillan">{{cite web|url=http://us.macmillan.com/ufohunters/williamjbirnes/ |title=UFO Hunters &#124; William J. Birnes &#124; Macmillan |publisher=us.macmillan.com|accessdate=2015-08-30}}</ref> Birnes has repeatedly appeared as a guest on the late night [[radio talk-show]] ''[[Coast to Coast AM]]'' to discuss [[UFOs]].<ref name="Coast"/> Birnes most recent nonfiction works are Dr. Feelgood with Richard Lertzman, Wounded Minds and Hearts of Darkness with Dr. John Liebert, The Life and Times of Mickey Rooney with Richard Lertzman, Beyond Columbo, The Life and Times of Peter Falk with Richard Lertzman, Edison v. Tesla, The Battle Over Their Last Invention with Joel Martin, Psychiatric Criminology with Dr. John Liebert, and UFO Hunters Book 2. Birnes will be appearing again in the third season of ''[[NASA's Unexplained Files]]'' and in early 2016 on Reelz TV's Dr. Feelgood.
==Bibliography==
* ''[[The Day After Roswell]]'' (1998) with Philip J. Corso {{ISBN|0-671-00461-1}}
* ''Star Trek Cookbook'' (1999) with [[Ethan Phillips]]
* ''Unsolved UFO Mysteries'' (2000) with Harold Burt
* ''The UFO Magazine UFO Encyclopedia'' (2004)
* ''Space Wars: The First Six Hours of World War III'' (2007) with William B. Scott, Michael J. Coumatos {{ISBN|0-7653-1087-2}}
* ''Worker in the Light: Unlock Your Five Senses And Liberate Your Limitless Potential'' (2008) with George Noory
* ''Serial Violence: Analysis of Modus Operandi and Signature Characteristics of Killers'' (2008) with Robert D. Keppel
* ''The Haunting of America: From the Salem Witch Trials to Harry Houdini'' (2009) with Joel Martin & George Noory
* ''Journey to the Light: Find Your Spiritual Self and Enter Into a World of Infinite Opportunity'' (2009) with George Noory
* ''Counterspace: The Next Hours of World War III'' (2009) with William B. Scott & Michael J. Coumatos
* ''UFO Hunters'' (2009)
* ''George Noory's Late-Night Snacks: Winning Recipes for Late-Night Radio Listening'' (2013) with George Noory
* ''The Haunting of Twenty-First-Century America'' (2013) with Joel Martin
==References==
{{reflist}}
==External links==
*{{isfdb name|name=William J. Birnes}}
*{{IMDb name|id=0083706}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Birnes, William J.}}
[[Category:American UFO writers]]
[[Category:New York University Graduate School of Arts and Science alumni]]
[[Category:1944 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Ufologists]]
[[Category:American male novelists]]
[[Category:University of Pennsylvania fellows]]
[[Category:The College of New Jersey faculty]]
[[Category:21st-century American novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century American male writers]]
[[Category:21st-century American male writers]]
[[Category:Novelists from New Jersey]]
[[Category:20th-century American non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:21st-century American non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:American male non-fiction writers]]