Richards has been in prison for over 30 years.  He is currently serving a sentence of life without parole in the Solano State Prison in Vacaville, California. The story of the crime and the events around Richard’s trial is interesting, but it is his “other life” that first draws one’s attention. Mark Richards claims he was working for the Secret Space Program at the time of the murder.

Supposedly, shrouded in mystery, the existence of the Secret Space Program is a closely guarded secret, but information from government whistle-blowers, intelligence operatives, and former astronauts has been surfacing for decades. Most of Richard’s alleged Secret Space Program work can be found on his website Earth Defense Headquarters which is run by his second wife, Jo Ann Richards. Jo Ann and Mark Richards, of the Earth Defense Headquarters (EDH), present a story that reaches back generations.  Richards is serving a life sentence without parole, for the murder of his friend Richard Baldwin, a crime that became known as the “Pendragon” murder.

Years after the crime, Richards, again, came to public attention with claims to have been a secret, space, command Captain who led an attack against aliens to reclaim a secret base in Dulce, New Mexico. He cited a remarkable, family history, which includes numerous, covert activities affecting global interests and top-level, alien contact. Richards claims he was a Navy Captain and was an Officer involved in the Dulce Battle, as well as very active in the Secret Space Program and U.S. Space Command for many years prior to his being arrested and convicted of a murder he states he did not commit. Richards’ military record, or lack thereof, is interesting.

Richards states that he met aliens at various times growing up, including a 9-foot reptilian prince in 1961.  After President Kennedy’s 1961 speech committing the United States to put a man on the moon, he and his father met the President in his limousine.  Kennedy asked Mark Richards to deliver a top-secret message to Charles de Gaulle.  Mark was just seven years old, but Kennedy is said to have trusted him.  (Knights of the Cold War.)

In 1962, Richards and his babysitter were attacked by human and non-human [Men in Black], engaging Richards in a fierce gun battle with the enemy. He held his own, defending himself and his babysitter who’d been immobilized by a sonic weapon until his Father and his men could come to his aid.  Richards’ stories and reports challenge fundamental notions of history, science, and culture. Carl Sagan once observed that extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.  Certainly, one should not accept an extraordinary claim at face value, one should require it be proven, to the fullest extent. As former MUFON director, James Carrion warned, “Make sure that you check their sources. Make sure you check every single fact. You better be a fact checker, because if you’re not a fact checker, you’re gonna be at the recipient end of disinformation, hoaxes, and just being led down the primrose path that a lot of ufologists find themselves.”

To assert that Richards was on active duty at the age of 13 stretches all credibility.  Richards graduated from high school in 1972 and attended Dominican college until 1976. In short, Richards was a college student rather than a soldier. There is no record of him being in the military and EDH has provided no documentation to support either his service or his ability to pilot helicopters or any other aircraft. It is a case of stolen valor by Richards.  In August 1979, Richards was married in Marin County, where he had a contracting business. This is the same month Richards states he was injured in a “command roll of Dragon Squadron.” (Dulce Report.) Presumably, this was in the Battle of Vesta, where he contacted the cat-people and commanded a battleship in an alliance to defeat enemy aliens. (EDH, “The Battle of Vesta, August 1979.”) Soon after, Richards was wounded during the Dulce battle. He was a busy man; if he is to be believed.