
Known to many simply as Bill Cooper, he was a decorated Navy veteran, a radio broadcaster, and the controversial author of the underground classic Behold a Pale Horse. But to his followers and his critics he was something more. A prophet. A paranoid. A patriot. Or perhaps, a bit of all three. Born in 1943, Cooper claimed to have witnessed classified UFO documents while working in Naval Intelligence. What followed was a life devoted to revealing the hidden machinery of power: secret governments, alien contact, mind control, and the manipulation of truth itself. His late-night shortwave radio show, The Hour of the Time, became a beacon for seekers, skeptics, and survivalists alike. And while much of what Cooper said sounded extreme, even impossible, over time, some of his warnings about surveillance, media manipulation, and authoritarian creep have aged with chilling accuracy. Cooper was killed in a shootout with law enforcement outside his Arizona home in 2001, just two months after 9/11, a tragedy he claimed was imminent in a broadcast months before it happened. Today, we peel back the layers of myth and mania to ask: Was Milton William Cooper a disinformation agent, a madman, or a man decades ahead of his time?
And who better to do that with than author Mark Jacobson, author of Pale Horse Rider: William Cooper the Rise of Conspiracy and the Fall of Trust in America.
Mark is a writer and journalist based in Brooklyn, New York. He is known for his explorations of the seamy side of urban life and for his offbeat and witty take on popular culture. Mark is a contributing editor at New York magazine and a frequent contributor to The Village Voice, National Geographic, Natural History magazine, Men's Journal, and other publications. Mark’s other books include such titles as The Lampshade, Gojiro, and Teenage Hipster in the Modern World from the Birth of Punk to the Land of Bush. I'm very grateful for Mark's appearance on AFB. Enjoy the show.
Mark's book: https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/jHtnDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0
Mark's IG: @palehorseriderbook @markjacobson48
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