The Real Lone Gunmen

The Lone Gunmen were a trio of conspiratorial characters who made guest appearances on television’s most paranoid and paranormal sci-fi show of the 1990s, The X-Files. They were: Melvin Frohike, John Fitzgerald Byers, and Richard Langley.

So popular were The Lone Gunmen with the fans of The X-Files that, in 2001, they received the ultimate accolade after years of playing second fiddle to Mulder and Scully: namely, a short-lived, spin-off series of their very own on the Fox network starting on March 4, 2001.

I like to think that the world of Forteana has its very own Lone Gunmen, and that's them in the photo above. From left to right: Rob Sterling (of The Knoformist), Kenn Thomas (of Steamshovel Press and Maury Island UFO, among others) and Greg Bishop (author of Project Beta and host of Radio Misterioso).

I took this photo of the conspiratorial trio at Laughlin, Nevada in 1998, and even to this day they still remind me of The Lone Gunmen!