Paul Bennewitz and Richard Doty: The UFO Insider Who Profited From Lies
Sep 30, 2025
Richard C. Doty’s name is impossible to separate from Paul Bennewitz. One was convinced he had uncovered proof of aliens, the other helped create the evidence to keep him believing it. Bennewitz’s side of the story ended in collapse. Doty’s continued, built on the same lies he once used to destroy another man.
Doty was a Special Agent with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations in the early 1980s. His job included protecting sensitive military projects, and when civilians like Paul Bennewitz got too close, Doty became involved. What set him apart was the way he went about it. He did not steer Bennewitz away from what he thought he was seeing. He encouraged him.
He handed Bennewitz forged documents with official seals, staged briefings that looked real, and leaked photographs and stories that suggested underground bases, crashed saucers, and secret recoveries. To someone already in a fragile state, this was not harmless misdirection. It was confirmation from an Air Force officer that his fears were true.
Doty’s name later turned up in connection with the Majestic 12 documents. These were the supposed leaked files describing a secret committee overseeing alien contact. They appeared in the 1980s and quickly spread, even though experts pointed out errors right away. The typefaces didn’t exist in the 1940s, the language was wrong for the time, and some agencies mentioned had not even been created yet. They were fakes, but they became one of the most enduring UFO stories. Doty has never admitted his involvement, but many researchers believe he helped put them out. What mattered was not whether they were true, but how well they kept the story alive.
Years later, his name was linked to the “Serpo Project.” This story claimed that in the 1960s, twelve U.S. military personnel traveled to another planet as part of an exchange program, with some staying there more than a decade. It spread online in the early 2000s, but like Majestic 12, it fell apart under scrutiny. The astronomy didn’t match, the travel times were impossible, and even UFO researchers who promoted it early on later backed away. Doty still gave interviews supporting parts of the story, keeping it alive even after it was clear it had no foundation.
Doty’s Air Force career ended, but he did not leave UFOs behind. He turned himself into a regular presence in documentaries, interviews, and podcasts, presenting as a former insider with secrets to share. He has spoken of aliens in government custody, secret treaties, and exchange programs with other worlds. These are the same kinds of claims that ruined Bennewitz. None of them have ever been backed by real evidence.
The contrast is clear. Once, Doty was a government agent feeding disinformation that pushed a man into collapse. Now, he sells the same kinds of stories for money and attention. It is the same act, only aimed at a different audience.
What makes it worse is the way he talks about it. In interviews, Doty recalls the Bennewitz case without remorse. He treats it like part of his story, something to boast about. But there is nothing impressive about destroying a man’s life.
Paul Bennewitz was left broken, while Richard Doty moved on and turned the same lies into a career. That is who Doty is today — once a government agent, now a man who profits from the very myths that left another man consumed until the end of his life. Anyone still listening to his stories should remember that.
Bennewitz’s legacy is one of tragedy, a man consumed by lies until there was nothing left. Doty’s legacy is one of exploitation, a man who chose to turn those same lies into income. One was destroyed by the myth, the other still profits from it. That contrast says more than any of Doty’s stories ever could. Bennewitz’s tragedy is remembered by those who care about the truth. Doty’s name survives only because he continues to cash in on a lie. That is not insider knowledge. It is exploitation.