Milton William Cooper Milton William Cooper |Born||May 6, 1…

Milton William Cooper
Milton William Cooper
|Born||May 6, 1943|
Long Beach, California, U.S.
|Died||November 5, 2001 (aged 58)|
Eagar, Arizona, U.S.
|Cause of death||Gunshot|
|Resting place||Springerville Cemetery|
Springerville, Arizona
|Other names||Bill Cooper|
|Occupation(s)||Conspiracy theorist, radio broadcaster, author|
Milton William "Bill" Cooper (May 6, 1943 – November 5, 2001) was an American conspiracy theorist, radio broadcaster, and author known for his 1991 book Behold a Pale Horse, in which he warned of multiple global conspiracies, some involving extraterrestrial life.[1][2][3] Cooper also described HIV/AIDS as a man-made disease used to target blacks, Hispanics, and homosexuals, and that a cure was made before it was implemented.[4] He has been described as a "militia theoretician".[5] Cooper was killed in 2001 by sheriff's deputies after he shot at them during an attempted arrest.[1]
Early life and education
Little is known about Cooper's background and education, beyond the information supplied in his own accounts. He claimed to have served in the United States Navy, the United States Air Force, and Naval Intelligence until his discharge in 1975;[6] however, public records only indicate a period of service in the Navy with a ratings code of E-5/Sergeant (Petty officer second class in the Navy), including a tour of duty in Vietnam with two service medals.[7] At the end of the war, while working in naval intelligence, Cooper served on a briefing team for Admiral Bernard A. Clarey.[8] He then attended a junior college in California, and worked for several technical and vocational schools before making his conspiracy theories known, beginning in 1988. Cooper expanded the speculations of earlier conspiracists by incorporating government involvement with extraterrestrials as a central theme.[9]
Behold a Pale Horse
In 1991, Cooper wrote and published Behold a Pale Horse.[5] The book has been influential among "UFO and militia circles".[10] Just prior to the trial of Terry Nichols in 1997, The Guardian described it as "the manifesto of the militia movement".[11]
According to sociologist Paul Gilroy, Cooper claimed "an elaborate conspiracy theory that encompasses the Kennedy assassination, the doings of the secret world government, the coming ice age, and a variety of other covert activities associated with the Illuminati's declaration of war upon the people of America".[5] Political scientist Michael Barkun characterized it as "among the most complex superconspiracy theories", and also among the most influential due to its popularity in militia circles as well as mainstream bookstores.[6] Historian Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke described the book as a "chaotic farrago of conspiracy myths interspersed with reprints of executive laws, official papers, reports and other extraneous materials designed to show the looming prospect of a world government imposed on the American people against their wishes and in flagrant contempt of the Constitution."[12]
UFOs, aliens and the Illuminati
|External documents|
|Text of Cooper's first post to a UFO message board[13]|
Cooper gained attention in Ufology circles in 1988 when he claimed to have seen secret documents while in the Navy describing governmental dealings with extraterrestrials, a topic on which he expounded in Behold a Pale Horse.[6] By one account he served as a "low level clerk" in the Navy, and as such would not have had the security clearance needed to access classified documents.[14] In the Summer of 1988, Cooper made his first public comments on the ParaNet Bulletin Board System, an early UFO message board, claiming that in 1966 he was serving aboard the USS Tiru when he and fellow Navy personnel witnessed a metal craft "larger than a football field" repeatedly enter and exit the water.[15] Cooper claimed he was instructed by superiors to never speak about the incident.[15] Biographer Mark Jacobson argues "the Tiru incident itself would not have done much to make Cooper's name in ufology. That opportunity came only a few days later" when he was contacted by fellow ParaNet poster John Lear. Lear, the son of Learjet founder Bill Lear, identified as a pilot who had flown missions for the CIA.[15] Lear was the author of a post titled "The UFO Coverup" which incorporated elements of mythos from Paul Bennewitz, a ufologist who was later revealed to have been fed disinformation by American counter-intelligence agent Richard Doty.[15][16] Cooper soon visited Lear, and the two spent much time together from 1988 to 1990.[15]
Cooper's views were heavily influenced by Lear and his story of alien collusion with secret governmental forces.[8] In 1989, the two released an "indictment" against the US Government for "aiding and abetting and concealing this Alien Nation which exists in our borders".[8] In 2018, columnist Colin Dickey noted the pair's influence, writing "in the early years [UFO writers] did not, by and large, embrace strong political positions. They…