Biography
John J. Ford, age 47, was president of the Long Island UFO Network. He and two co-conspirators were arrested in June 1996 over a plot to use radium-laced canisters to murder Suffolk County Republican leader John Powell and two county officials, accusing the local government of covering up UFO sightings. Found incompetent to stand trial.
Contemporary commitment report, not a prison sentence
Philip J. Klass’s January 1998 Skeptics UFO Newsletter identifies John Ford as the Long Island UFO Network founder and reports that he had been sent to a New York state psychiatric center after being found incompetent to stand trial. It identifies Mid-Hudson Psychiatric Center in discussing his own prediction of an eventual return and dismissal. The reported 25–75 years was a possible future penalty if tried, not an imposed sentence, actual served time or discharge date. His own prediction is not evidence that he was actually released. The article dates the charges broadly to mid-1996 and supplies no exact physical intake, transfer or discharge day. This contemporary status report does not establish his present-day status or a new episode. Its reported age 49 is historical, not a current age or exact birthday; the existing year-precision birthdate is not overwritten.
Skeptics UFO Newsletter no.49, January 1998, original page 7.
