Up for auction a RARE! "Bermuda Triangle" Larry Kusche Hand Signed 4X6 Card. 

ES-4936E

Lawrence

David Kusche (born November 1,

1940) is an American author, research librarian, and pilot. He investigated

unexplained disappearances and other unusual events related to the Bermuda Triangle to answer queries he was getting as a

research librarian, and ended up writing a book debunking most of the mysteries

touted by other writers about that location. Kusche

was born in Racine, Wisconsin, and his

family moved to the Phoenix, Arizona area when he was six. Interested in

aviation, Kusche qualified for a commercial pilot's license at age 19, was a

commercial pilot by age 21, a flight instructor by age 24, and an instrument

instructor.

In 1964, Kusche graduated from Arizona State University (ASU).

He completed a training course to become a commercial flight engineer, but on

the day he was supposed to report for work, he decided he didn't like the

prospect of a career sitting in front of hundreds of switches and dials unable

to see out of the airplane. He resigned and returned to Arizona to become a

high school math teacher and librarian. Later, he acquired a master's degree in

library science and began working at ASU's Hayden Library in June, 1969. Kusche

is the author of Larry Kusche's Popcorn Cookery, a 1977

cookbook detailing recipes involving popcorn, including baked goods made from

ground-up popcorn "flour", and Shape Up Your Hips and

Thighs.[ Kusche took a leave-of-absence to complete his

first book. After the success of the Bermuda Triangle book,

Kusche abandoned his career as a librarian to become a writer. He has worked as

a technical writer in the Phoenix area. After the publication of his

investigative books, Kusche became a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical

Inquiry (CSI). As a research librarian at ASU, Kusche received

queries for all types of information from students writing term papers. In

the early 1970s, he became interested in the Bermuda Triangle mystery, as he was confronted by

numerous queries related to the Triangle. This prompted Kusche and fellow

librarian Debbie Blouin to start gathering information, mostly by writing

hundreds of letters to request information from official sources. Initially,

the two librarians began selling (for $2) a bibliography of the information

about the Bermuda Triangle that they had acquired. Later, it occurred to Kusche

that somebody should put down all of the information they had gathered into a

book. When the publishing company Harper and Row ordered a copy of the bibliography,

Kusche sent them a copy with a note scribbled on it asking if they were

interested in a book about the subject that he was writing – and they were. Initially

intrigued by the mysteries surrounding the Triangle, Kusche's research

convinced him that virtually all the incidents had been caused by storms or

accidents, or they happened outside the Triangle, or no proof could be found

that they ever occurred at all. His conclusion was that the Triangle was a

"manufactured mystery," the result of poor research and reporting,

and the occasional deliberate falsification of facts. Kusche

originally included a long chapter in his Bermuda Triangle book about Flight

19, five Navy Avenger torpedo airplanes on a training mission out of Fort

Lauderdale Naval Air Station that disappeared in the Atlantic Ocean on December

5, 1945. Kusche later expanded this chapter into a book, The

Disappearance of Flight 19. He studied the Navy's report of the

investigation, interviewed many of the Navy personnel who were involved at the

time, and flew the likely route of the missing aircraft himself. At the time,

the lost flight of five torpedo bombers was said to be a victim of the

mysterious forces in the Triangle. Kusche explained why the flight leader

erroneously thought he was in the Florida Keys, why he said his compass had

failed, and why no wreckage has yet been found.