This startling allegation was made by someone in a position to know -- the original publisher of Hoagland's book The Monuments of Mars.The
publisher is Richard Grossinger of North Atlantic Books, and the allegation is contained in
an online catalog written almost two years ago.
Here's the key passage: Here is another little secret about Monuments: the only way the damn thing ever got written was that Hoagland went to prison for one of his
inexplicable and weird scams (ostensibly something about a stolen rental car and New York Planetarium credit card)—whether it really happend or not
as reported, whether it was really a scam or not, and whether he was really guilty or sentenced fairly or not (the answer to the latter is definitely
“not,” as he had an attorney involved in his own weird paranoid cosmic conspiracy theories, including Hoagland). In the end he was incarcerated
over a New York State warrant that he chose to flee (to the Golden State) rather than defend in situ; he was apprehended in Berkeley when stopped for
having a cardboard rear license plate; refused to plea-bargain; and so got housed in L.A. County jail for over a year. Admittedly my version of the
story is cobbled out of hearsay from a variety of semi-reliable sources, but it roughly tracks some event that actually happened. He was in jail;
that’s where I addressed my mail to him regarding the book; and he did write much of the book there.
Meh.....who knows? Lot's of people have arrests for minor infractions of the law in their pasts, so what's the big deal? Even I spent a very
short stay in a county jail in the early 90s over a stupid ticket that had been long forgotten. If the man used his time served wisely and did some
writing during his incarceration then more power to him. I must note that I don't know much about the man myself, but if he served a little time for
something minor it's nothing that millions of others haven't done.
I think I lost all respect and believe the last shreds of credibility vanished for Hoagie when he stated U.S. personnel had traveled to the comet
Elenin, landed on it and found it was artificial and bringing a message for all mankind.
The only message it turned out to be bringing was that comets which come too close to our Sun get melted into nothingness. Pop goes the
snowball.....along with the credibility of more than one person. ...and they thought we'd all forget or something I'll bet.