Stanton T. Friedman

Stanton Terry Friedman was a nuclear physicist who worked on classified advanced propulsion systems for companies including General Electric, General Motors, Westinghouse, and McDonnell Douglas before devoting himself full-time to UFO research in 1970. His engineering background gave him a technical credibility that few other researchers could match, and he used it relentlessly.

Friedman's most consequential contribution was reviving the Roswell case. In 1978 he interviewed Jesse Marcel, the intelligence officer who had handled debris from the 1947 crash, and Marcel told him the material had been extraordinary. Friedman's investigation, conducted over years with co-author Don Berliner, produced Crash at Corona (1992) and established Roswell as the central case in UFO history.

He was equally tenacious on MJ-12. When the controversial documents surfaced in 1984, Friedman spent decades investigating their provenance, arguing for their authenticity against strong criticism from both sceptics and fellow ufologists. His position on MJ-12 remains disputed, but his investigative rigour in tracing document chains, interviewing witnesses, and filing FOIA requests set a standard.

Friedman gave over 700 lectures at more than 600 colleges and 100 professional groups in 50 US states and 18 countries. He debated sceptics publicly and aggressively, earning him the title "the original disclosure lobbyist." He died in 2019 at age 84.