1 00:00:08,600 --> 00:00:13,000 Speaker 1: On November seventh, nineteen seventy two, America went to the polls, 2 00:00:13,480 --> 00:00:17,840 Speaker 1: and the nation nearly unanimously voted to re elect President 3 00:00:17,960 --> 00:00:22,760 Speaker 1: Richard Nixon. Of the five hundred and thirty eight electoral votes, 4 00:00:23,120 --> 00:00:27,760 Speaker 1: Nixon won five hundred and twenty that's ninety six point 5 00:00:27,840 --> 00:00:31,320 Speaker 1: five percent of the electoral college vote. The only two 6 00:00:31,360 --> 00:00:35,320 Speaker 1: electoral College votes he lost were Massachusetts and the District 7 00:00:35,440 --> 00:00:36,160 Speaker 1: of Columbia. 8 00:00:36,760 --> 00:00:38,720 Speaker 2: Nixon took the whole map. 9 00:00:39,120 --> 00:00:42,839 Speaker 1: It's one of the single greatest electoral victories in US history. 10 00:00:43,240 --> 00:00:46,040 Speaker 1: His reelection was more than a mandate. It was self 11 00:00:46,080 --> 00:00:49,960 Speaker 1: evident that Richard Nixon was the unchallenged leader of. 12 00:00:49,840 --> 00:00:54,040 Speaker 2: The free world. No one was more powerful than Richard Nixon. 13 00:00:57,560 --> 00:01:00,639 Speaker 1: And then just a few months later, on February nineteenth, 14 00:01:00,800 --> 00:01:04,520 Speaker 1: nineteen seventy three, Nixon had the day off. It was 15 00:01:04,520 --> 00:01:07,880 Speaker 1: Washington's birthday, a federal holiday, so the president had some 16 00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:11,440 Speaker 1: time for himself. That Monday, he was in Florida, where 17 00:01:11,440 --> 00:01:14,000 Speaker 1: he spent the day playing eighteen holes at a celebrity 18 00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:19,600 Speaker 1: golf tournament. According to his official presidential calendar, Nixon hopped. 19 00:01:19,319 --> 00:01:22,040 Speaker 2: Into a chopper and flew to the exclusive. 20 00:01:21,480 --> 00:01:25,240 Speaker 1: Country club of Miamia there in the early afternoon, the 21 00:01:25,280 --> 00:01:28,920 Speaker 1: President enjoyed the links with David Eisenhower, the son of 22 00:01:29,000 --> 00:01:32,360 Speaker 1: former President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who also happened to be 23 00:01:32,480 --> 00:01:36,160 Speaker 1: Nixon's son in law married to his daughter Julie. The 24 00:01:36,240 --> 00:01:39,000 Speaker 1: other person golfing with Nixon that fateful day was his 25 00:01:39,080 --> 00:01:42,400 Speaker 1: good friend and financial donor of the famous funny man 26 00:01:42,680 --> 00:01:46,760 Speaker 1: Jackie Gleeson. Perhaps drunk on his new power, perhaps just 27 00:01:46,920 --> 00:01:50,640 Speaker 1: feeling himself because he'd ended the war in Vietnam, or 28 00:01:50,720 --> 00:01:53,960 Speaker 1: perhaps it was just that sort of day. Whatever it was, 29 00:01:54,080 --> 00:01:58,040 Speaker 1: something happened out there on the golf course because Nixon 30 00:01:58,080 --> 00:02:01,440 Speaker 1: decided he would show Jackie Gleeson what the comedian wanted 31 00:02:01,440 --> 00:02:04,520 Speaker 1: to see most of all in life. And later that 32 00:02:04,600 --> 00:02:08,520 Speaker 1: same day, President Nixon took Jackie Gleeson to a secret 33 00:02:08,600 --> 00:02:12,600 Speaker 1: base in Florida because the most powerful man on earth 34 00:02:12,880 --> 00:02:16,519 Speaker 1: had promised his friend he would show him the bodies 35 00:02:16,560 --> 00:02:21,360 Speaker 1: of dead aliens recovered from a crashed UFO. At least 36 00:02:21,520 --> 00:02:27,239 Speaker 1: that's how the story goes. This is very special episodes 37 00:02:27,280 --> 00:02:30,360 Speaker 1: and I'm your host, Zarn Burnett. This is the story 38 00:02:30,400 --> 00:02:34,600 Speaker 1: of when Nixon showed Jackie Gleeson where the aliens are. 39 00:02:34,520 --> 00:02:42,720 Speaker 3: Kept Welcome back to very special episodes. My name is 40 00:02:42,800 --> 00:02:45,600 Speaker 3: Jason English. I'm solo this week for the banter portion 41 00:02:45,680 --> 00:02:49,080 Speaker 3: of our program, the full Team. We'll be back next week. 42 00:02:49,440 --> 00:02:51,840 Speaker 3: Dana and Zaren and I have a running joke about 43 00:02:51,840 --> 00:02:55,840 Speaker 3: how Richard Nixon seems to appear in every episode we 44 00:02:55,960 --> 00:02:59,680 Speaker 3: put out, just in the last couple months. He popped 45 00:02:59,760 --> 00:03:03,120 Speaker 3: up in our discussion of Big Bird's diplomatic mission to China. 46 00:03:04,160 --> 00:03:06,880 Speaker 3: Saren mentions him briefly in our episode with David Chase 47 00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:10,959 Speaker 3: talking about the Lost Wonder Years script. Nixon's name comes 48 00:03:11,040 --> 00:03:12,920 Speaker 3: up at the end of last week's episode when we 49 00:03:12,960 --> 00:03:16,000 Speaker 3: were talking about my daughter's appearance on The Rachel Ray Show. 50 00:03:16,800 --> 00:03:20,400 Speaker 3: We crunched the numbers. Nixon has appeared in forty percent 51 00:03:20,440 --> 00:03:23,200 Speaker 3: of our episodes this year, and none of these episodes 52 00:03:23,240 --> 00:03:27,360 Speaker 3: are about Richard Nixon. He's just in the background. So 53 00:03:27,480 --> 00:03:30,240 Speaker 3: Saren decided to set off and find the strangest story 54 00:03:30,280 --> 00:03:34,720 Speaker 3: that actually involves the former president. I will caveat from 55 00:03:34,720 --> 00:03:37,800 Speaker 3: the start this story may not be true, but the 56 00:03:37,800 --> 00:03:39,640 Speaker 3: people involved all believed that it was. 57 00:03:40,080 --> 00:03:40,160 Speaker 4: So. 58 00:03:40,280 --> 00:03:45,080 Speaker 3: Did President Nixon show his buddy Jackie Gleeson the secret 59 00:03:45,120 --> 00:03:50,640 Speaker 3: facility in Florida, where we're hiding dead aliens, let's discuss. 60 00:03:53,000 --> 00:03:56,240 Speaker 1: In twenty eighteen, a home that once belonged to Jackie 61 00:03:56,240 --> 00:03:59,880 Speaker 1: Gleeson came up for sale asking Chrisce twelve million dollars. 62 00:04:00,320 --> 00:04:03,600 Speaker 1: The custom built dwelling was situated in a leafy glen 63 00:04:03,640 --> 00:04:07,360 Speaker 1: in the Hudson Valley. The home was quite unique. In fact, 64 00:04:07,400 --> 00:04:10,280 Speaker 1: it was a complex of structures. Two of them were 65 00:04:10,320 --> 00:04:14,800 Speaker 1: built to look like UFOs. There's the main house aka 66 00:04:15,080 --> 00:04:19,279 Speaker 1: the Mothership, and there's the guesthouse aka the scout Ship. 67 00:04:19,880 --> 00:04:24,000 Speaker 1: The comic had the homes built to his exacting specifications. 68 00:04:24,320 --> 00:04:28,120 Speaker 1: The construction took five years. In nineteen fifty nine, when 69 00:04:28,120 --> 00:04:31,600 Speaker 1: the builders were done, Jackie Gleeson had a home that 70 00:04:31,720 --> 00:04:35,039 Speaker 1: looked like a UFO had landed in the New York Woods. 71 00:04:35,520 --> 00:04:38,840 Speaker 1: Inside the home you would find no right angles, no 72 00:04:39,000 --> 00:04:42,760 Speaker 1: indication it was shaped by human hands. Instead, all the 73 00:04:42,800 --> 00:04:47,159 Speaker 1: angles were rounded, curved, and organic by design. In the 74 00:04:47,240 --> 00:04:50,919 Speaker 1: listing from the real estate agents from Remax, they noted 75 00:04:51,040 --> 00:04:54,640 Speaker 1: that the concept of the home is a musical note, 76 00:04:54,839 --> 00:04:57,000 Speaker 1: hence the roundness of the design. 77 00:04:57,360 --> 00:04:59,679 Speaker 2: As with a note, it never ends. 78 00:05:00,200 --> 00:05:03,920 Speaker 1: If you look at the ceilings, the woodwork looks like rowboats. 79 00:05:04,279 --> 00:05:06,720 Speaker 2: There are the trusses that hold the house up. 80 00:05:06,880 --> 00:05:10,240 Speaker 1: There are no cross support beams because they would have 81 00:05:10,279 --> 00:05:11,359 Speaker 1: had right angles. 82 00:05:12,480 --> 00:05:15,159 Speaker 2: The home boasted a hell of a spread. 83 00:05:15,480 --> 00:05:19,920 Speaker 1: There were five bedrooms, six baths, a library, a billiard's room, 84 00:05:20,000 --> 00:05:23,680 Speaker 1: a home office, and roughly seventy five hundred square feet 85 00:05:23,960 --> 00:05:27,640 Speaker 1: of living space. And Jackie Gleeson often played host at 86 00:05:27,640 --> 00:05:32,479 Speaker 1: the home, entertaining his famous friends and colleagues, including Richard Nixon, 87 00:05:32,680 --> 00:05:35,640 Speaker 1: which tells us that Richard Nixon was quite familiar with 88 00:05:35,680 --> 00:05:38,320 Speaker 1: the fact that his old friend Jackie Gleeson was a 89 00:05:38,520 --> 00:05:43,239 Speaker 1: nut for the flying saucermen from Mars. In his custom 90 00:05:43,320 --> 00:05:47,680 Speaker 1: spaceship home, Jackie Gleeson kept a library of seventeen hundred 91 00:05:47,760 --> 00:05:51,320 Speaker 1: books on the subject, as well as books on parapsychology 92 00:05:51,640 --> 00:05:55,159 Speaker 1: and the paranormal. But above it all, Jackie Gleeson was 93 00:05:55,200 --> 00:06:00,640 Speaker 1: all about them aliens, UFOs and flying saucers. To read 94 00:06:00,720 --> 00:06:04,240 Speaker 1: contemporary stories on the subject, such as the one about 95 00:06:04,279 --> 00:06:06,200 Speaker 1: a woman who claimed to be married to a man 96 00:06:06,240 --> 00:06:09,680 Speaker 1: from Saturn, he also examined the photographs of any and 97 00:06:09,880 --> 00:06:15,280 Speaker 1: all reported UFO sightings. Jackie Gleeson mostly came away unconvinced. 98 00:06:15,800 --> 00:06:19,320 Speaker 1: He was a skeptical believer. He wanted to know if 99 00:06:19,320 --> 00:06:22,240 Speaker 1: there were aliens out there. He believed there were, but 100 00:06:22,320 --> 00:06:26,200 Speaker 1: he really wanted to know for sure. There is a 101 00:06:26,279 --> 00:06:29,159 Speaker 1: small and subtle irony that the man who played Ralph 102 00:06:29,160 --> 00:06:32,520 Speaker 1: Cramden on the early TV show The Honeymooners, who first 103 00:06:32,600 --> 00:06:41,120 Speaker 1: became famous for comically threatening his wife home, was into UFOs. 104 00:06:41,480 --> 00:06:45,440 Speaker 1: But the man was a space case, and he also was. 105 00:06:45,640 --> 00:06:48,880 Speaker 2: Friends with the most powerful man in the world. 106 00:06:49,160 --> 00:06:54,000 Speaker 1: The keeper of the secrets. Former President Lyndon Johnson, had 107 00:06:54,040 --> 00:06:57,520 Speaker 1: died in January, just days after Nixon's second inauguration. 108 00:06:58,080 --> 00:06:59,880 Speaker 2: The man who knew. 109 00:06:59,760 --> 00:07:02,960 Speaker 1: That Nixon cheated his way into power in the sixty 110 00:07:03,000 --> 00:07:06,560 Speaker 1: eight election, who could have revealed what he called Nixon's 111 00:07:06,640 --> 00:07:11,480 Speaker 1: quote treason, was gone. So was the once all powerful 112 00:07:11,480 --> 00:07:15,000 Speaker 1: head of the FBI, J Edgar Hoover. He died in 113 00:07:15,080 --> 00:07:19,040 Speaker 1: May of seventy two. Also, former President Truman died in 114 00:07:19,080 --> 00:07:23,400 Speaker 1: December of that same year, and so in nineteen seventy three, 115 00:07:23,560 --> 00:07:26,240 Speaker 1: at the start of his second term, the only one 116 00:07:26,360 --> 00:07:30,560 Speaker 1: left still standing is Richard Nixon. He was the only 117 00:07:30,760 --> 00:07:35,560 Speaker 1: living president. Nixon was the only keeper of the secrets left, 118 00:07:35,840 --> 00:07:37,640 Speaker 1: and there were definitely. 119 00:07:37,320 --> 00:07:38,320 Speaker 2: Secrets to keep. 120 00:07:39,160 --> 00:07:43,320 Speaker 1: Paul blake Smith wrote the book President Eisenhower's Close Encounters 121 00:07:43,800 --> 00:07:45,520 Speaker 1: when Nixon was the vice president. 122 00:07:45,560 --> 00:07:46,120 Speaker 5: To Dwight D. 123 00:07:46,200 --> 00:07:49,760 Speaker 2: Eisenhower, he'd learned about the aliens who'd come to Earth. 124 00:07:50,040 --> 00:07:54,400 Speaker 1: According to Paul Blacksmith, the story goes quote, Eisenhower stepped 125 00:07:54,400 --> 00:07:57,160 Speaker 1: away from his golf vacation in Palm Springs, California, on 126 00:07:57,200 --> 00:08:00,360 Speaker 1: the night of February nineteenth, nineteen fifty four, and went 127 00:08:00,400 --> 00:08:03,200 Speaker 1: to Edward's Air Force Base in a pre arranged meeting 128 00:08:03,240 --> 00:08:07,880 Speaker 1: to meet some landed friendly extraterrestrials. They were human like, 129 00:08:08,120 --> 00:08:11,840 Speaker 1: according to a US test pilot who was there. The 130 00:08:11,960 --> 00:08:16,600 Speaker 1: aliens were reportedly fluent English speakers, and they chatted with 131 00:08:16,680 --> 00:08:20,760 Speaker 1: President Eisenhower in a relaxed and conversational manner. It seems 132 00:08:20,800 --> 00:08:24,440 Speaker 1: that the aliens also liked Ike, but they did ask 133 00:08:24,480 --> 00:08:26,760 Speaker 1: Eisenhower to do them one favor, hook him up do 134 00:08:26,840 --> 00:08:30,400 Speaker 1: a solid for the et. As Paul Blake Smith tells it, 135 00:08:30,520 --> 00:08:33,680 Speaker 1: the aliens told Ike, quote, stop. 136 00:08:33,480 --> 00:08:37,359 Speaker 3: Your atomic boom testing program. 137 00:08:37,720 --> 00:08:40,240 Speaker 1: So basically it was like a riff on the plot 138 00:08:40,280 --> 00:08:42,280 Speaker 1: of the classic sci fi flick The Day of the 139 00:08:42,320 --> 00:08:46,000 Speaker 1: Earth Stood Still. But you may be thinking, what about Nixon, 140 00:08:46,360 --> 00:08:50,360 Speaker 1: was he also there, We don't know. It's doubtful. When 141 00:08:50,559 --> 00:08:54,000 Speaker 1: LBJ was president, exactly ten years later, he took a 142 00:08:54,040 --> 00:08:57,880 Speaker 1: trip out to that same top secret base in Palm Springs. 143 00:08:58,520 --> 00:09:01,319 Speaker 1: Back to Paul Blake Smith, he claims that he found 144 00:09:01,360 --> 00:09:04,880 Speaker 1: evidence that President Johnson also had a secret rendezvous with 145 00:09:04,920 --> 00:09:06,880 Speaker 1: the same aliens that Ike spoke to. 146 00:09:07,320 --> 00:09:08,960 Speaker 2: Apparently on the tenth. 147 00:09:08,679 --> 00:09:13,280 Speaker 1: Anniversary of Eisenhower's initial contact with the Flying Saucer Men, 148 00:09:13,640 --> 00:09:17,080 Speaker 1: which would make it February nineteenth, nineteen sixty four, then 149 00:09:17,360 --> 00:09:21,280 Speaker 1: President Johnson called former President Eisenhower from the White House 150 00:09:21,320 --> 00:09:24,360 Speaker 1: and asked him about the aliens, what to do, what 151 00:09:24,480 --> 00:09:27,920 Speaker 1: to say, how to chitchat with them? Then he flew 152 00:09:28,000 --> 00:09:31,360 Speaker 1: to Pop Springs, where he met with Ike in person 153 00:09:31,920 --> 00:09:35,960 Speaker 1: multiple times. Then he went back again four years later 154 00:09:36,040 --> 00:09:39,520 Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty eight, and again on the same date, 155 00:09:40,000 --> 00:09:46,240 Speaker 1: February nineteenth. As Paul Blake Smith reasons quote, something was up. 156 00:09:47,080 --> 00:09:49,120 Speaker 2: Now does that date sound familiar. 157 00:09:49,480 --> 00:09:53,440 Speaker 1: It's the same day that Nixon went golfing with Jackie Gleeson, 158 00:09:53,679 --> 00:09:56,480 Speaker 1: and it's the same day that he took Jackie Gleeson 159 00:09:56,559 --> 00:10:00,680 Speaker 1: to see the preserved bodies from a wrecked alien spaceship. 160 00:10:01,040 --> 00:10:05,800 Speaker 1: Only now it's five years later. February nineteenth, nineteen seventy three. 161 00:10:06,679 --> 00:10:10,400 Speaker 1: That day, Nixon was in Miami to attend Jackie Gleeson's 162 00:10:10,440 --> 00:10:14,480 Speaker 1: celebrity golf tournament, which was televised on CBS. At the 163 00:10:14,520 --> 00:10:18,720 Speaker 1: golf course, the President's helicopter touchdown, Nixon hopped out a 164 00:10:18,760 --> 00:10:22,720 Speaker 1: Marine one. He chatted with the press before the news cameras. 165 00:10:22,960 --> 00:10:26,000 Speaker 1: He bantered a bit with Jackie Gleeson. Then he and 166 00:10:26,080 --> 00:10:28,720 Speaker 1: his pal hopped in a golf cart and toured the 167 00:10:28,760 --> 00:10:33,160 Speaker 1: manicured greens. Their golf outing that day is well documented, 168 00:10:33,679 --> 00:10:36,880 Speaker 1: but what's not as well documented is what happened later 169 00:10:37,000 --> 00:10:40,760 Speaker 1: that same day when Nixon showed up at Jackie Gleeson's 170 00:10:40,800 --> 00:10:59,040 Speaker 1: house alone. I gene with my own jew I In 171 00:10:59,120 --> 00:11:02,560 Speaker 1: nineteen fifty, Jackie Gleason was on the radio talking about 172 00:11:02,559 --> 00:11:05,800 Speaker 1: his love of all things alien. But he was no 173 00:11:06,000 --> 00:11:10,200 Speaker 1: gape mouthed, goable guy. Gleason wasn't there to speculate. He 174 00:11:10,320 --> 00:11:13,120 Speaker 1: wasn't there to dream aloud about one day seeing a 175 00:11:13,120 --> 00:11:17,040 Speaker 1: flying saucer and those little green men from Mars. No, 176 00:11:17,400 --> 00:11:22,480 Speaker 1: he wanted evidence, incontrovertible evidence, and he wanted others in 177 00:11:22,520 --> 00:11:27,280 Speaker 1: the community to also demand provable evidence for what he called, 178 00:11:27,559 --> 00:11:32,080 Speaker 1: quote the most important story in the world. The radio 179 00:11:32,160 --> 00:11:35,720 Speaker 1: show he was on was called The Long John Neville Show. 180 00:11:36,200 --> 00:11:41,120 Speaker 1: Jackie Gleason was a guest along with fellow paranormal researcher. 181 00:11:40,720 --> 00:11:45,760 Speaker 2: Gray Barker, and Whoo. Jackie went hard after his fellow believer. 182 00:11:46,320 --> 00:11:49,160 Speaker 1: At one point, the two men get into this heated 183 00:11:49,200 --> 00:11:52,560 Speaker 1: exchange about a woman named Marla Baxter who claimed to 184 00:11:52,559 --> 00:11:54,160 Speaker 1: be married to a man from Saturn. 185 00:11:54,920 --> 00:11:56,439 Speaker 2: Jackie found it laughable. 186 00:11:56,720 --> 00:11:59,560 Speaker 1: He felt this kind of talk was exactly the problem 187 00:12:00,360 --> 00:12:04,120 Speaker 1: that was why aliens in flying saucers were considered such 188 00:12:04,240 --> 00:12:08,520 Speaker 1: a kooky subject and never taken seriously by serious people. 189 00:12:09,120 --> 00:12:12,880 Speaker 1: That night, in nineteen fifty eight, Gleason wondered aloud on 190 00:12:12,920 --> 00:12:17,280 Speaker 1: the radio show why aliens always picked such dubious people 191 00:12:17,360 --> 00:12:20,880 Speaker 1: to abduct or to give their messages to humanity? 192 00:12:21,360 --> 00:12:23,000 Speaker 2: As Jackie Gleeson put. 193 00:12:22,760 --> 00:12:30,480 Speaker 6: It, why what a space person contact anyone? Well, let's 194 00:12:30,520 --> 00:12:34,040 Speaker 6: not say how it's that's dla. Why what a space 195 00:12:34,160 --> 00:12:37,319 Speaker 6: person con got any woman being on it? That's what 196 00:12:37,520 --> 00:12:41,440 Speaker 6: you think would be, at least according to the people 197 00:12:41,520 --> 00:12:45,040 Speaker 6: who claim to be contacted the space people have a. 198 00:12:45,040 --> 00:12:46,199 Speaker 4: Message for us. 199 00:12:46,760 --> 00:12:50,360 Speaker 1: At this point, Jackie Gleason asks what that message is, 200 00:12:50,520 --> 00:12:54,320 Speaker 1: and more importantly, he asks, if the aliens really want 201 00:12:54,440 --> 00:12:56,800 Speaker 1: us to believe their message, and if they do want 202 00:12:56,880 --> 00:12:59,359 Speaker 1: us to believe it, then why don't. 203 00:12:59,120 --> 00:13:04,120 Speaker 4: They everdence along with this so that we were believe them. 204 00:13:06,920 --> 00:13:09,600 Speaker 2: This is what drives the funny man crazy. 205 00:13:10,080 --> 00:13:13,080 Speaker 1: If the aliens want to make contact, why do they 206 00:13:13,360 --> 00:13:18,240 Speaker 1: always pick the most suspect citizens to convey the information 207 00:13:18,559 --> 00:13:23,559 Speaker 1: to Why trust them with their message and then obscure 208 00:13:23,800 --> 00:13:25,680 Speaker 1: any evidence that they've been on earth? 209 00:13:26,040 --> 00:13:27,600 Speaker 2: It makes no sense. 210 00:13:28,640 --> 00:13:31,959 Speaker 1: In that same radio show, Jackie Gleeson tells a story 211 00:13:32,000 --> 00:13:35,040 Speaker 1: of how two years earlier, back in nineteen fifty six, 212 00:13:35,520 --> 00:13:38,959 Speaker 1: he tried to make a documentary about aliens. His partner 213 00:13:39,000 --> 00:13:42,720 Speaker 1: in the project was the legendary mid century journalist Edward R. 214 00:13:42,800 --> 00:13:43,120 Speaker 4: Murraw. 215 00:13:43,559 --> 00:13:46,439 Speaker 2: As Gleeson tells the story as. 216 00:13:46,320 --> 00:13:48,640 Speaker 4: Morrow and I I want to and I sauld I 217 00:13:48,640 --> 00:13:51,080 Speaker 4: think the biggest story of the world is flying them. 218 00:13:51,840 --> 00:13:56,199 Speaker 4: If they I let you and I do a documentary 219 00:13:56,440 --> 00:14:03,280 Speaker 4: fhing what don't If they're off wearing sauce or who telling, 220 00:14:03,400 --> 00:14:08,000 Speaker 4: But it's just the full goal, then we should forget 221 00:14:08,040 --> 00:14:11,240 Speaker 4: about it. And he says, I got the guy in 222 00:14:11,400 --> 00:14:14,200 Speaker 4: general so and so up, and we called the guy 223 00:14:14,280 --> 00:14:18,920 Speaker 4: up that the guy said to don't get paying this thing. 224 00:14:19,120 --> 00:14:21,120 Speaker 4: I don't want to get pare it. It's too hot 225 00:14:21,200 --> 00:14:23,600 Speaker 4: down here. I don't want to handle it. And you 226 00:14:23,680 --> 00:14:25,640 Speaker 4: might as well to get about the project. You'll get 227 00:14:25,640 --> 00:14:30,080 Speaker 4: no co operation. And I all hung up the phone 228 00:14:30,080 --> 00:14:32,160 Speaker 4: and he left that may and he repeated what the 229 00:14:32,160 --> 00:14:33,920 Speaker 4: guy said to him on the phone, if I could 230 00:14:33,960 --> 00:14:39,280 Speaker 4: pare up the Henry, and he left that they're off wine. 231 00:14:41,920 --> 00:14:45,560 Speaker 1: It didn't matter which avenue he attempted. If he partnered 232 00:14:45,600 --> 00:14:49,200 Speaker 1: with a respected journalist and tried to ask the important questions, 233 00:14:49,640 --> 00:14:53,680 Speaker 1: or if he did late night radio shows the paranormal investigators, 234 00:14:54,000 --> 00:14:58,120 Speaker 1: Jackie Gleeson could never get the answers he most desperately desired, 235 00:14:58,480 --> 00:15:03,280 Speaker 1: as he mused to Great Darker, the paranormal author and investigator. 236 00:15:04,440 --> 00:15:07,680 Speaker 4: With a client off, a little guy hopping out and say. 237 00:15:07,720 --> 00:15:12,440 Speaker 6: Perios probably wanted to go. And I want to have 238 00:15:12,560 --> 00:15:15,600 Speaker 6: that ran down a faceball field in Central Park and 239 00:15:15,680 --> 00:15:17,840 Speaker 6: there'll be plenty of people in who were three years 240 00:15:17,840 --> 00:15:22,280 Speaker 6: and five minutes, everybody alone, whatever its. 241 00:15:21,720 --> 00:15:25,760 Speaker 1: Is, well, Jackie Gleeson didn't know then, But what he 242 00:15:25,840 --> 00:15:29,400 Speaker 1: was about to discover was that his friend, the most 243 00:15:29,520 --> 00:15:32,680 Speaker 1: powerful man in the world, wanted to share a secret 244 00:15:32,840 --> 00:15:41,160 Speaker 1: with him, one that would forever change his life. Jackie 245 00:15:41,160 --> 00:15:44,760 Speaker 1: Gleeson met Beverly McKittrick, his second wife, at a country club. 246 00:15:45,280 --> 00:15:48,760 Speaker 1: Looking back, much of his life was shaped by country clubs. 247 00:15:49,400 --> 00:15:53,000 Speaker 1: The pair married in nineteen seventy. Their marriage didn't last long. 248 00:15:53,320 --> 00:15:56,200 Speaker 1: They divorced in nineteen seventy five, but it was an 249 00:15:56,240 --> 00:16:00,600 Speaker 1: amicable split. Eight years later, in nineteen eighty three, Beverly 250 00:16:00,680 --> 00:16:04,760 Speaker 1: McKittrick shared a very unexpected story from her time being 251 00:16:04,800 --> 00:16:07,880 Speaker 1: married to Jackie Gleeson. It was about the time his friend, 252 00:16:08,000 --> 00:16:11,400 Speaker 1: the President showed her husband the Flying Saucerman. 253 00:16:12,000 --> 00:16:14,680 Speaker 7: I'll never forget the night in nineteen seventy three my 254 00:16:14,720 --> 00:16:18,200 Speaker 7: famous husband came home, slumped white faced in an armchair 255 00:16:18,400 --> 00:16:21,280 Speaker 7: and spilled out the incredible story to me. He was late. 256 00:16:21,720 --> 00:16:24,080 Speaker 7: It was around eleven thirty pm, and I'd been worried. 257 00:16:24,440 --> 00:16:26,560 Speaker 7: As soon as I heard his key turn and the 258 00:16:26,600 --> 00:16:29,200 Speaker 7: lock of our golf course home in Invery, Florida, I 259 00:16:29,320 --> 00:16:31,440 Speaker 7: jumped to my feet and asked, where have you been. 260 00:16:32,120 --> 00:16:33,200 Speaker 7: His reply stunned me. 261 00:16:33,880 --> 00:16:37,040 Speaker 5: I've been at Homestead Air Force Base, and I've seen 262 00:16:37,080 --> 00:16:41,160 Speaker 5: the bodies some aliens from out of space. It's top secret. 263 00:16:41,720 --> 00:16:44,840 Speaker 5: Only a few people know, but the President arranged for 264 00:16:45,040 --> 00:16:48,240 Speaker 5: me to be escorted in there and see them. 265 00:16:49,080 --> 00:16:52,400 Speaker 1: According to mckitchenen, that night, Nixon showed up at their 266 00:16:52,440 --> 00:17:01,200 Speaker 1: home alone, driving himself. Now this may sound fetched, but Nixon, 267 00:17:01,320 --> 00:17:03,600 Speaker 1: like John F. Kennedy, was known to sneak out of 268 00:17:03,600 --> 00:17:06,600 Speaker 1: the White House, and Nixon was even known to give 269 00:17:06,680 --> 00:17:09,560 Speaker 1: his Secret service men the slip from time to time. 270 00:17:09,960 --> 00:17:13,919 Speaker 1: Guess Old Tricky Dick was also Slippery Dick. So there's 271 00:17:14,040 --> 00:17:17,880 Speaker 1: Nixon saigns his secret service guys. When he shows up 272 00:17:17,920 --> 00:17:22,200 Speaker 1: at Jackie Gleeson's home and the President tells Jackie he's 273 00:17:22,200 --> 00:17:23,640 Speaker 1: got a surprise for him. 274 00:17:24,240 --> 00:17:28,119 Speaker 5: Nixon is like, come on, good up, Jackie, put on 275 00:17:28,160 --> 00:17:31,840 Speaker 5: your pants, let's go. There's something I want to show you. 276 00:17:33,160 --> 00:17:36,880 Speaker 1: Nixon drives them thirty five miles over to Homestead Air 277 00:17:36,920 --> 00:17:40,960 Speaker 1: Force Base. Of course, the President's recognized and saluted by 278 00:17:41,000 --> 00:17:43,840 Speaker 1: the soldier at the gate, and they're waved onto the base. 279 00:17:44,280 --> 00:17:48,560 Speaker 1: Nixon leads Jackie Gleeson to a top secret facility. It 280 00:17:48,720 --> 00:17:53,040 Speaker 1: was heavily guarded yet it was a nondescript building. There, 281 00:17:53,240 --> 00:17:57,240 Speaker 1: Nixon is waved into the top secret facility because he's 282 00:17:57,280 --> 00:18:00,639 Speaker 1: the president, and I guess that includes plus one privileges, 283 00:18:00,720 --> 00:18:03,879 Speaker 1: because he was able to get Jackie Gleeson into the 284 00:18:03,880 --> 00:18:08,720 Speaker 1: top secret facility with him. Jackie Gleeson's wife McKittrick very 285 00:18:08,880 --> 00:18:12,440 Speaker 1: memorably recalls what he told her when he returned home. 286 00:18:13,359 --> 00:18:15,720 Speaker 7: There were a number of labs we passed through first 287 00:18:15,760 --> 00:18:18,239 Speaker 7: before we entered a section where Nixon pointed out what 288 00:18:18,320 --> 00:18:21,000 Speaker 7: he said was the wreckage from a flying saucer and 289 00:18:21,080 --> 00:18:24,479 Speaker 7: closed in several large cases. Next, we went into an 290 00:18:24,520 --> 00:18:26,840 Speaker 7: inner chamber, and there were six or eight of what 291 00:18:26,880 --> 00:18:30,600 Speaker 7: looked like glass topped coke freezers. Inside them were the 292 00:18:30,640 --> 00:18:32,720 Speaker 7: mangled remains of what I took to be children. 293 00:18:34,040 --> 00:18:38,880 Speaker 1: It's finally happening. The aliens are so close Jackie Gleeson 294 00:18:38,960 --> 00:18:42,879 Speaker 1: can almost touch them. One might imagine Gleeson is looking 295 00:18:42,920 --> 00:18:47,160 Speaker 1: to Nixon, the President nodding in response, and then Gleeson 296 00:18:47,280 --> 00:18:51,600 Speaker 1: looks once again at the fantastically terrific sight before him. 297 00:18:51,720 --> 00:18:54,960 Speaker 1: It's easy to imagine Nixon standing there in the top 298 00:18:55,000 --> 00:19:00,520 Speaker 1: secret base wearing some awkward, uneasy Nixon smile. As he 299 00:19:00,560 --> 00:19:03,080 Speaker 1: tells his good friend Jackie Gleeson. 300 00:19:03,359 --> 00:19:05,679 Speaker 5: Ugh, as you can see they're real. 301 00:19:06,520 --> 00:19:09,840 Speaker 1: There's just a thick piece of glass separating the former 302 00:19:10,000 --> 00:19:13,800 Speaker 1: TV star from what he's most always wanted to see, 303 00:19:14,119 --> 00:19:16,720 Speaker 1: a real alien from outer space. 304 00:19:17,440 --> 00:19:20,960 Speaker 7: And there were the aliens, lying on four separate tables. 305 00:19:21,400 --> 00:19:25,040 Speaker 7: They were tiny, only about two feet tall, with small, 306 00:19:25,080 --> 00:19:29,320 Speaker 7: bald heads and disproportionately large eyes. They must have been 307 00:19:29,359 --> 00:19:31,359 Speaker 7: dead for some time because they'd been embalmed. 308 00:19:32,040 --> 00:19:35,400 Speaker 1: According to Nixon, the alien's bodies had been pulled from 309 00:19:35,440 --> 00:19:37,359 Speaker 1: the wreckage of a spaceship. 310 00:19:37,800 --> 00:19:40,639 Speaker 2: No word on if it was the famous crash at Roswell. 311 00:19:41,080 --> 00:19:44,640 Speaker 1: After all those years of searching, after reading all those 312 00:19:44,760 --> 00:19:48,679 Speaker 1: thousands of books, attending all the conferences, and listening to 313 00:19:48,760 --> 00:19:53,560 Speaker 1: all those late night call in shows, finally Jackie Gleeson 314 00:19:53,640 --> 00:19:56,560 Speaker 1: had his evidence of flying saucers and the little Green 315 00:19:56,640 --> 00:20:00,399 Speaker 1: men from Mars, and just as Nixon had hoped, it 316 00:20:00,560 --> 00:20:05,760 Speaker 1: indeed blew his friend's mind. His wife remembers how after 317 00:20:05,800 --> 00:20:07,720 Speaker 1: he returned home, Jackie Gleeson. 318 00:20:07,400 --> 00:20:09,560 Speaker 2: Couldn't sleep for two weeks. 319 00:20:10,359 --> 00:20:13,399 Speaker 1: He wanted to know so badly and for so long, 320 00:20:13,760 --> 00:20:16,280 Speaker 1: But then when he finally did see an alien in 321 00:20:16,320 --> 00:20:20,240 Speaker 1: a spaceship with his own two eyes. It nearly wrecked him. 322 00:20:20,480 --> 00:20:24,040 Speaker 1: He didn't know how to process it. However, he did 323 00:20:24,240 --> 00:20:27,199 Speaker 1: know he needed to swear his wife to secrecy, so 324 00:20:27,359 --> 00:20:30,800 Speaker 1: he did that, and she didn't tell anyone right up 325 00:20:30,880 --> 00:20:33,480 Speaker 1: until they got divorced, and then she wrote her tell 326 00:20:33,480 --> 00:20:34,160 Speaker 1: All memoir. 327 00:20:34,600 --> 00:20:36,199 Speaker 2: Then she told the story to the. 328 00:20:36,240 --> 00:20:40,600 Speaker 1: National Inquirer because Homegirl needed to sell some books, which 329 00:20:40,800 --> 00:20:46,160 Speaker 1: immediately undercut her credibility. So what did Jackie Gleason say 330 00:20:46,280 --> 00:20:49,439 Speaker 1: about his encounter after his wife spilled the beans and 331 00:20:49,440 --> 00:20:50,720 Speaker 1: told his secret to the world. 332 00:20:53,400 --> 00:20:53,800 Speaker 5: Nothing. 333 00:20:54,359 --> 00:20:57,920 Speaker 1: He didn't deny it, he didn't dispute it. He also 334 00:20:58,000 --> 00:21:03,679 Speaker 1: didn't corroborate it. He didn't say anything. One year before 335 00:21:03,680 --> 00:21:06,320 Speaker 1: he passed away, Jackie Gleeson gave an interview to a 336 00:21:06,359 --> 00:21:11,199 Speaker 1: fellow ufologist named Larry Warren, and that guy claims that 337 00:21:11,320 --> 00:21:15,359 Speaker 1: Jackie Gleeson repeated the same story to him seated there 338 00:21:15,400 --> 00:21:19,480 Speaker 1: in his UFO shaped home in the Hudson Valley. Also, 339 00:21:19,760 --> 00:21:23,280 Speaker 1: there are some who have claimed to see those very 340 00:21:23,400 --> 00:21:26,520 Speaker 1: same aliens in the top secret base in Homestead, Florida, 341 00:21:26,960 --> 00:21:31,440 Speaker 1: and one man, a former CIA operative named Chauncey Holt, 342 00:21:31,760 --> 00:21:36,720 Speaker 1: claims he was there that very day, February nineteenth, nineteen 343 00:21:36,880 --> 00:21:42,119 Speaker 1: seventy three, when Nixon showed Jackie Gleeson the small, mangled 344 00:21:42,160 --> 00:21:47,679 Speaker 1: bodies of shipwrecked aliens. Yet the question remains, did Richard 345 00:21:47,760 --> 00:21:51,760 Speaker 1: Nixon really reveal the greatest secret ever kept? Did the 346 00:21:51,800 --> 00:21:54,800 Speaker 1: President take his golf buddy Jackie Gleeson to a top 347 00:21:54,800 --> 00:21:59,560 Speaker 1: secret facility and show him the proof he so clearly craved. 348 00:22:00,240 --> 00:22:00,760 Speaker 2: We don't know. 349 00:22:01,160 --> 00:22:04,680 Speaker 1: Ironically, we have no proof. We just have the stories. 350 00:22:05,000 --> 00:22:07,560 Speaker 1: But I like to believe it happened. But I like 351 00:22:07,600 --> 00:22:10,240 Speaker 1: to believe aliens are real. I also like to believe 352 00:22:10,280 --> 00:22:12,800 Speaker 1: that Jackie Gleeson got what he wanted most out of 353 00:22:12,840 --> 00:22:16,800 Speaker 1: this life, that he finally saw a real alien, and 354 00:22:16,960 --> 00:22:20,400 Speaker 1: seeing it wiped out everything he'd ever known or believed 355 00:22:20,440 --> 00:22:24,840 Speaker 1: to be true, which wrecked him too, the great cost 356 00:22:25,240 --> 00:22:28,720 Speaker 1: of innocence lost. I also like to believe that the 357 00:22:28,760 --> 00:22:31,840 Speaker 1: most powerful man in the world, Richard Nixon, the master 358 00:22:32,000 --> 00:22:35,520 Speaker 1: of secrets, wanted to give his friend the greatest gift 359 00:22:35,560 --> 00:22:38,120 Speaker 1: he could think of, but he forgot to tell him 360 00:22:38,119 --> 00:22:41,680 Speaker 1: how to live with that truth. There's an irony there too. 361 00:22:42,040 --> 00:22:45,439 Speaker 1: The most famous liar in American political history gives his 362 00:22:45,520 --> 00:22:49,320 Speaker 1: friend a great hidden truth as a gift, and that 363 00:22:49,400 --> 00:22:52,480 Speaker 1: truth damn near kills his friend Nixon. 364 00:22:52,800 --> 00:22:55,399 Speaker 2: But at least Jackie Gleeson got to see the aliens. 365 00:22:55,560 --> 00:22:58,560 Speaker 1: That is, if you believe it happened. We just don't know. 366 00:22:59,040 --> 00:23:04,000 Speaker 1: But sometimes not knowing is better. We can believe whatever 367 00:23:04,080 --> 00:23:04,520 Speaker 1: we want. 368 00:23:05,200 --> 00:23:06,080 Speaker 2: Thanks for listening. 369 00:23:12,200 --> 00:23:15,000 Speaker 3: Very Special Episodes is made by some very special people. 370 00:23:15,480 --> 00:23:18,600 Speaker 3: Today's episode is written by Zaren Burnett. Our show is 371 00:23:18,640 --> 00:23:22,399 Speaker 3: hosted by Zaren Burnett, Danish Schwartz, and Jason English. Our 372 00:23:22,440 --> 00:23:26,440 Speaker 3: producer is Josh Fisher. Editing and sam designed by Jonathan 373 00:23:26,560 --> 00:23:30,640 Speaker 3: Washington and Josh Fisher. Mixing and mastering by Josh Fisher. 374 00:23:31,480 --> 00:23:36,120 Speaker 3: Additional editing by Mary Doo. Original music by Alice McCoy. 375 00:23:37,000 --> 00:23:41,680 Speaker 3: Show logo by Lucy Kintonia. Our executive producer is Jason English. 376 00:23:42,400 --> 00:23:47,240 Speaker 3: Our next episode comes out next Friday, June twenty seventh. 377 00:23:47,800 --> 00:23:50,119 Speaker 3: We are a Wednesday show, but we need to shift 378 00:23:50,119 --> 00:23:52,560 Speaker 3: a couple of days next week because we have a 379 00:23:52,760 --> 00:23:56,040 Speaker 3: very exciting interview that will be incorporated in that episode. 380 00:23:56,119 --> 00:23:58,600 Speaker 3: So give us a couple of days. It'll be worth it. 381 00:23:59,480 --> 00:24:07,159 Speaker 3: Very Special Episodes is a production of iHeart Podcasts.