The author describes this book as a work of fiction. If that is true, than this is the worst piece of fiction I have ever read. I sought this book out because it deals with the Apollo 1 fire, which I’ve had a great interest in for several years. The first time I read this, I was utterly confused. It took a second, and then a third reading to actually understand each of the various (and usually contradictory) conspiracy theories the author espouses.

The Forward starts with an ominous statement from the author: “In order to shield the innocent, the author has chosen to write it as a novelized form of history.” Try not to think about that too hard. In the Preface, the author then claims that there is obviously a conspiracy involving Apollo 1 because he couldn’t get anyone to talk to him about it. He also introduces the idea of “sinister contraband” being present in the capsule for the first time in the preface. This will be the central theme of the rest of the book, so get used to it.

What does the author mean by “sinister contraband”? He summarizes it as extra Top Secret equipment that was loaded into the capsule in the dead of night by secret contractors without any supervision or quality control. He claims that NASA retained no record of this secret equipment and the only surviving records are hand drawn diagrams used by the contractors.

The author maintains that the Apollo 204 report was full of misinformation and was later used as a format to cover up what “really happened” during the Three Mile Island accident. And we haven’t even gotten to Chapter 1.

Because this title is fairly rare, I kept detailed notes on what exactly the author claims throughout the book (Believe me, it changes chapter to chapter. I won’t give you a blow by blow account, but I will summarize some of his main claims.

In this book, the author makes the following accusations/claims:

-The author said he was “almost” picked to be a member of the New Nine astronauts, but was finally rejected for his heights.
-He claims to have been good friends with Astronaut C.C. Williams.
-Claims that General Electric had rigged the capsule with extra batteries stored in the lower bay during the test to save the fuel cells. He refers to these batteries numerous times as “klugged-up.” He also states these were pyro batteries and had to be turned on by an astronaut inside the capsule. He states the cause of the fire was the astronauts plugging them in all at once, instead of in sequence.
-Claims the firefighters responding to the fire were deliberately delayed by NASA.
-Claims the crew up to five minutes after the fire broke out. He states NASA cut the feed on the capsule’s voicerecordings to prevent evidence of this getting out.
-Claims he found the “real” accident report in the National Archives that confirm the astronauts lived at least 5 minutes.
-Claims that Gus Grissom turned off the camera pointed at the hatch window during ingress to prevent anyone from seeing the batteries installed (Nevermind that this contradicts his “installed in the middle of the night” scenario).
-Claims the batteries released hydrogen into the cabin atmosphere, and this was the actual cause of the fire. He claims Chaffee actually says “I’m caught in a flash fire” in the audio from the capsule. He insists this must mean it was a hydrogen fire.
-He presents various pieces of evidence that confirm the astronauts lived for several minutes after the fire broke out. He actually included the testimony of Gary Propst, which was actually included in the Apollo 204 report. (This part I actually found interesting. If there ever was any real conspiracy regarding Apollo 1, I think this would be the most credible.)
-He claims that Chaffee actually lived after the fire, but he was allowed to die from his injuries to cover up what caused the fire.
-He claims that cabin inventory lists indicate that there were enough supplies for 4 astronauts, not 3. Therefore, there must have been a fourth astronaut in the capsule.
-He determines that NASA was desperate to one-up the Soviets, so they were going to cram in an extra astronaut, without regard to safety. He claims Frank Borman confirmed they found part of a fourth helmet in the lower equipment bay.
-He also claims to have found records of a fourth PPK kit aboard the capsule, belonging to an astronaut with the initials FL.
-The author suggests that either the secret cargo was the “klugged-up” batteries, or the fourth astronaut, or both.
-He decides that C.C. Williams must have been the fourth astronaut. He claims that after the fire, Williams’ body was kept frozen and then used in a staged plane crash 8 months later. He decides the FL referenced earlier means “Funny Little C.C. Williams.”

The author leaps from one conspiracy to another and it is hard to keep straight just what he is accusing NASA of doing. Did NASA jerry-rig extra batteries inside the capsule to run secret experiments, or save the fuel cells? Did NASA try to sneak in another astronaut, then keep his body on ice only to stage a plane crash 8 months later? Is everyone at NASA and the various contractors guilty of covering up the deaths of 3 (4) good men?

I can only laugh at the idea that this is supposed to be a work of fiction. There is no character development, no plot, no action, literally nothing happens. The only real fiction could be the ridiculous names he assigns various witnesses or sources. The author punctuates long, decidedly non-fiction passages with a few paragraphs that contain his “fictional story.” This whole book is suspect. I'm even suspicious of the author. I can't find out what his full name is, or if he's written anything else. I would only recommend this to someone if they are ultra-interested in Apollo 1. Other than that, nobody should bother with this mess. ( )