The ASUP Speaker Bureau - 2008 Season
Since my retirement as a newspaper editor, I have been asked to be a guest speaker at several
organizations. My expertise is rather unique, besides experience in community journalism, news
photography and as a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York; I have been involved in
the research and investigation of what I like to call, “Things that go bump in the night,” for more than 35
years as a co-founder and coordinator of the Association for the Study of Unexplained Phenomenon and
editor of the RIP - Research in Progress journal of the ASUP.
Unfortunately, I am probably best remembered as the debunker of Jay Anson’s best seller, The Amityville
Horror; the Internet still mentions that first when you put my name in a search engine. I spent the better part
of a year on the road, playing counterpoint to Jay’s contention that Amityville was a true story. The trips
were enlightening, but it’s still hard to live with the idea that most people think of me as a debunker.
In fact, my field research on The Mothman Prophecies by John Keel was anything but a debunking; my
team found that many of that book’s claims were based in fact and if anything, we added to the legend of the
now infamous Men in Black. Of course, between those landmark bits of unexplained phenomenon iconry,
there have been hundreds of other cases, ranging anywhere from UFO cattle Mutilations to ghosties, Bigfoot
to hauntings of ever size and shape.
Of course, most folks want to hear the stories about Amityville and Mothman, but there is really so much
more to tell, as you can see by reading the RIP Journal.
To that end, I am constantly asked to make public appearances and talk about "things that go bump in
the night, and I am happy to do so. For groups similar to the ASUP, we will appear for free, although we
sometimes have to ask for an honorarium to cover travel expenses when it is too far away from home. We
also do programs for local organizations, the Rotary and other community organizations and have been the
guest speaker at dozens of other company meetings as the keynote speaker. They tell me I am funny! In
fact, my presentation was the only thing that kept me on the payroll for as many years when teaching
college. If you are not entertaining, no one is really listening.
If you or your organization would like to have me, or another member of the ASUP team speak at an
upcoming event, please feel free to give me a call or send me an e-mail and I promise we will respond in a
timely manner. Service fees for non-related organizations are reasonably low, so you don't have to worry
that we will be breaking the bank to hear our ghost stories!
I will be looking forward to hearing from you.
Respectfully,
Rick Moran
rick-moran@asup-inc.org
903-873-2320
214-536-7801 (cell)
P.O. Box 262
Willws Point, TX 75169
