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Faking Apollo: Fifty Years of Secrecy


Physics Phreak

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Has anyone encountered a book called "Faking Apollo: Fifty Years of Secrecy" by Derek K. Willis? The book describes an interesting take on the Apollo Moon landing hoax. I read the book and was greatly entertained. Apparently, the first genuine attempt to land on the Moon was Apollo 13, the fiftieth anniversary of which is soon upon us.

I then entertained myself by doing some digging. Here is a list of the people who appear in the book. We are told that everyone has been given false names to hide their identity:

John Kelly

Faye Kershaw

Hoyt Axton

Janice Pearson

Travis Icke

Craig Appleton

I will do the first one, and then you can do the rest!

John Kelly ... JOhn KElly ... JOKE

 

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Does he present any evidence?

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Believe me we have heard a lot from Derek Willis. :no:

He was here promoting his book last summer and he fled after we poked holes in all of his arguments. The same happened to him at apollohoax.net

1 hour ago, Physics Phreak said:

John Kelly ... JOhn KElly ... JOKE

I did indeed turn out that John Kelly didn't exists.

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1 hour ago, Physics Phreak said:

Has anyone encountered a book called "Faking Apollo: Fifty Years of Secrecy" by Derek K. Willis? The book describes an interesting take on the Apollo Moon landing hoax. I read the book and was greatly entertained. Apparently, the first genuine attempt to land on the Moon was Apollo 13, the fiftieth anniversary of which is soon upon us.

Except that Cernan brought back one fender, not two, and it's not missing, it's in the Smithsonian. Derek is an idiot.

1 hour ago, Physics Phreak said:

I then entertained myself by doing some digging. Here is a list of the people who appear in the book. We are told that everyone has been given false names to hide their identity:

John Kelly

Faye Kershaw

Hoyt Axton

Janice Pearson

Travis Icke

Craig Appleton

I will do the first one, and then you can do the rest!

John Kelly ... JOhn KElly ... JOKE

 

John Kelly is a pseudonym.

You read the book hey? :unsure2:

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There's more. According to the book, John Kelly gave Derek K. Willis the key to a safety deposit box at the First Illinois Bank. The initials of the bank were imprinted on the key. Also, Willis was given a serial number he had to provide to the bank manager: 6  1  11  5  2  15  15  11. It's not rocket science!

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1 minute ago, Physics Phreak said:

There's more. According to the book, John Kelly gave Derek K. Willis the key to a safety deposit box at the First Illinois Bank. The initials of the bank were imprinted on the key. Also, Willis was given a serial number he had to provide to the bank manager: 6  1  11  5  2  15  15  11. It's not rocket science!

Lol, no, it most certainly is not rocket science.

mrw-in-a-conspiracy-theory-thread-there-

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1 hour ago, Noteverythingisaconspiracy said:

Believe me we have heard a lot from Derek Willis. :no:

He was here promoting his book last summer and he fled after we poked holes in all of his arguments. The same happened to him at apollohoax.net

Do you have a link to the thread? It sounds interesting.

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51 minutes ago, psyche101 said:

 

John Kelly is a pseudonym.

You read the book hey? :unsure2:

He covered that in the last sentence before the name list.

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3 minutes ago, _Only said:

Do you have a link to the thread? It sounds interesting.

A quick look gave me those two, pad your desk, make sure not to drink while reading etc... 

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There's even more. One person in the book goes by the name "Ratsie" - so-called because he is a whistle blower who ratted. Do I need to spell it out?

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3 hours ago, Physics Phreak said:

There's even more. One person in the book goes by the name "Ratsie" - so-called because he is a whistle blower who ratted. Do I need to spell it out?

Yes, please. Spell all of it out including the purpose of this thread actually.

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Ah, I see I do have to spell it out.

The purpose of my thread was to see if others wanted to play the same game of discovery I played when re-reading Derek K. Willis' book. So here we go:

John Kelly ... JOhn KElly ... JOKE

Faye Kershaw ... FAye KErshaw ... FAKE

Hoyt Axman ... HOyt AXman ... HOAX

Janice Pearson ... JAnice PEarson ... JAPE

Travis Icke ... TRavis ICK ... TRICK

Craig Appleton ... CRaig APpleton ... CRAP

The initials of the First Illinois Bank are on the key ... FIB

The serial number is:  6  1  11  5  2  15  15  11.

If these refer to letters in the alphabet we have:  F A K E B O O K

And now I will spell out "Ratsie"   R A T S I E.

Perhaps this is an anagram. Is it T A R S I E? No. But it might be S A T I R E.

I do hope Mr Willis will comment.   

 

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49 minutes ago, Physics Phreak said:

Ah, I see I do have to spell it out.

The purpose of my thread was to see if others wanted to play the same game of discovery I played when re-reading Derek K. Willis' book. So here we go:

John Kelly ... JOhn KElly ... JOKE

Faye Kershaw ... FAye KErshaw ... FAKE

Hoyt Axman ... HOyt AXman ... HOAX

Janice Pearson ... JAnice PEarson ... JAPE

Travis Icke ... TRavis ICK ... TRICK

Craig Appleton ... CRaig APpleton ... CRAP

The initials of the First Illinois Bank are on the key ... FIB

The serial number is:  6  1  11  5  2  15  15  11.

If these refer to letters in the alphabet we have:  F A K E B O O K

And now I will spell out "Ratsie"   R A T S I E.

Perhaps this is an anagram. Is it T A R S I E? No. But it might be S A T I R E.

I do hope Mr Willis will comment.   

 

Using my amazing powers of prophesy I predict that he wont.

Very nice catch by the way. :tu: It just proves his dishonesty.

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5 hours ago, rambaldi said:

A quick look gave me those two, pad your desk, make sure not to drink while reading etc... 

I remember those threads all too clearly. What a trainwreck. :no:

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Oh, that Derek guy obviously had such a sense of humour.  How we will all laugh hysterically now that it was all a 'jape' ... 

Frankly, I think he was so embarrassed by the absolute thrashing he got here and at Apollohoax, that he's now trying to salvage something.

From my point of view, I do NOT appreciate the time wasted on his bull****, and if I see him pop up anywhere.... well, let's just say I'll be a constant companion and make sure everyone knows how he operates...

 

PF, I'm intrigued by one other thing - can you please explain exactly how you stumbled across his book?

 

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I came across a short story called "Yellow Beach" published by the Hemingway Foundation. The author was Derek K. Willis. I was interested in seeing what else he might have written, and found reviews of his books on various sites. That led to "Faking Apollo: Fifty Years of Secrecy", which I downloaded.

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I ought to add how when I came across the story "Yellow Beach" - which features in "Hemingway Shorts" - the name Derek K. Willis rang a bell, but I am not sure why. I have now read some of the debate here on Unexplained Mysteries. When I first downloaded the book "Faking Apollo: Fifty Years of Secrecy" I had assumed it was a novel - a roman a clef in which the author had inserted himself as a character. Having "decoded" some of the "hidden" information I am of the opinion the book is an attempted satire on the theory claiming the Moon landings were faked. After all, that very word is encoded in the serial number of the safety deposit box. Who knows? Perhaps Mr Willis will enlighten us.

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8 hours ago, Physics Phreak said:

I ought to add how when I came across the story "Yellow Beach" - which features in "Hemingway Shorts" - the name Derek K. Willis rang a bell, but I am not sure why. I have now read some of the debate here on Unexplained Mysteries. When I first downloaded the book "Faking Apollo: Fifty Years of Secrecy" I had assumed it was a novel - a roman a clef in which the author had inserted himself as a character. Having "decoded" some of the "hidden" information I am of the opinion the book is an attempted satire on the theory claiming the Moon landings were faked. After all, that very word is encoded in the serial number of the safety deposit box. Who knows? Perhaps Mr Willis will enlighten us.

We certainly hope not. His previous entries have been absolute rubbish.

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I was wondering if anyone else has actually read the book? Also, I see I made an error above. The word "satire" isn't encoded in the serial number of the safety deposit box; it appears as an anagram in the name of a character.  

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12 hours ago, Physics Phreak said:

I was wondering if anyone else has actually read the book?

Why bother? It would be a waste of my time. This 'individual' was a waste of space (no pun intended) on this and other forums; anything they would claim to have written would be likewise.

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12 hours ago, Physics Phreak said:

I was wondering if anyone else has actually read the book? 

You can tell Mr. Willis that we still aren't interested.

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On 3/28/2020 at 6:48 PM, Physics Phreak said:

I was wondering if anyone else has actually read the book? Also, I see I made an error above. The word "satire" isn't encoded in the serial number of the safety deposit box; it appears as an anagram in the name of a character.  

It's worth noting that Derek promised, in order to not be accused of spamming this forum, that he would make a copy of the book available to all forum goers for free.  That did NOT happen.  He *was* spamming

He reneged on that, after his claims (which were presented here as fact, not fiction) did not get the approval he was expecting.  Indeed, a number of the claims were instantly exposed as either lies or simply false.

So, I would not even think of buying, no matter how cheap, a book from this scammer.

If there's anything in the book that you think *is* worthy of attention, can you let us know?  But maybe check the threads here and over at Apollohoax first...

Oh, and given that Derek promised he would give us access to a free copy, I wouldn't be too concerned about quoting from his book.... :D

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On 3/28/2020 at 6:09 AM, Physics Phreak said:

I ought to add how when I came across the story "Yellow Beach" - which features in "Hemingway Shorts" - the name Derek K. Willis rang a bell, but I am not sure why. I have now read some of the debate here on Unexplained Mysteries. When I first downloaded the book "Faking Apollo: Fifty Years of Secrecy" I had assumed it was a novel - a roman a clef in which the author had inserted himself as a character. Having "decoded" some of the "hidden" information I am of the opinion the book is an attempted satire on the theory claiming the Moon landings were faked. After all, that very word is encoded in the serial number of the safety deposit box. Who knows? Perhaps Mr Willis will enlighten us.

What draws you to the controversial claims that belittle the amazing achievements of others?

I honestly think people like Derek and Bart Sibrel are just nobody losers who try to steal laurels from others. Pathetic worms. But that's just my personal opinion of course. 

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Having read the preview my assumption was that the book is a work of fiction. Anonymous phone calls in the dead of night, secret meeting in obscure bars in Chicago, characters who appear to have guns in their pockets - these are the tropes of fiction. Having read the book I am now of the opinion it is a satire. That is as far as my interest goes.  

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That's gone farther than my interest, I can tell you.

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