Unknown Origins Radio Classic - John Ventre - 09/25/2014

John Ventre got into UFO research later than most. He joined MUFON at 39, not because of a childhood sighting, but because his research into end-times prophecies across cultures kept turning up the same pattern: flying shields, people from the stars. “Every single culture is talking about it,” he says. That led him to a conclusion he states plainly: “UFOs are real, the government knows about it, and it’s a race for the technology.”

Ventre is now Pennsylvania State Director for MUFON, overseeing 30 investigators who handle roughly 320 cases a year. He also runs MUFON operations for five other states and appears on the History channel’s Hangar One — a gig he credits to a combative appearance on Anderson Cooper, where a producer liked his “fire.”

How MUFON investigates — and why its data stays hidden

The episode spends real time on a tension within UFO research: MUFON collects thousands of reports annually but makes little of its raw data public. Co-host Bruce Pearson presses Ventre on this, contrasting MUFON with Peter Davenport of the National UFO Reporting Center, who single-handedly logs and publishes cases nationwide.