Birnes believes that Earth has been visited by many different types of extraterrestrials, and that pictures taken by NASA have been airbrushed to remove any evidence of alien activity. Birnes speculates that NASA may have taken missions to the Moon after Apollo 17, but these missions were kept secret from the public due to alien interference and new-found extraterrestrial artifacts. Birnes claims that NASA made three additional trips to the Moon; Apollo 18, Apollo 19, and Apollo 20. Additionally, he claims that the Apollo 13 incident was actually an extraterrestrial attack meant to scare humans away from landing on the Moon. Birnes's credibility was called into question when a UFO sighting over Morris County, New Jersey, on January 5, 2009, featured on the show UFO Hunters as a preview of the show's third season was later recognized as a hoax designed to be a social experiment. The perpetrators of the event, in which they launched Chinese lanterns near a local airport, claimed that they had hoaxed UFO Hunters even though no claims were made on the show with respect to the origin of what local witnesses claimed to be UFO sightings.
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As a writer of popular nonfiction, he co-authored The Riverman with detective/academic Robert D. Keppel, an account of serial killer Ted Bundy's involvement in the apprehension of Green River KillerGary Ridgway. The book was adapted into a made-for-TV film on A&E. As a UFOlogist, Birnes collaborated with Philip J. Corso, on The Day After Roswell, appeared on the History Channel's television documentary series: UFO Files, Ancient Aliens, NASA's Unexplained Files and I Know What I Saw. He starred in UFO Hunters as leader of an investigative team of fellow ufologists, and later wrote a book by the same name documenting his experiences on the show. Birnes has repeatedly appeared as a guest on the late night radio talk-showCoast to Coast AM to discuss UFOs. Birnes most recent nonfiction works are Dr. Feelgood with Richard Lertzman, Wounded Minds and Hearts of Darkness with Dr. John Liebert, The Life and Times of Mickey Rooney with Richard Lertzman, Beyond Columbo, The Life and Times of Peter Falk with Richard Lertzman, Edison v. Tesla, The Battle Over Their Last Invention with Joel Martin, Psychiatric Criminology with Dr. John Liebert, and UFO Hunters Book 2. Birnes will be appearing again in the third season of NASA's Unexplained Files and in early 2016 on Reelz TV's Dr. Feelgood.
