Physicist review: Bryan G. Wallace, "The Farce of Physics" (1993)

Reviewer: PhD physicist (Step 2). Date: 2026-10-04. Tags: [read: line N] = from _text/farce-d10910.txt (the whole book is one "page", so line numbers are used); [read: deep] = the Opus deep read of Chapter 7 (deep/farce-d10910.md); [web] with URL; [memory] with confidence.

Source gap (repeated from claims.md)

The book prints no equation of Wallace's "mass dynamics", no atomic model, and no radar residual table or fitting equations. The primary papers (Spectroscopy Letters 2, 361 (1969); 3, 115 (1970); 4, 79 and 4, 123 (1971); Found. Phys. 3, 381 (1973); J. Clas. Phys. 1(2), 17 (1982); Speculations Sci. Technol. 9, 9 (1986)) are not in the folder, and the Investigator downloaded none of them (research/files/ is empty). I read the radar passages of Chapter 5 and Chapter 2/4 letters myself (lines 2480-2560, 2790-2930, 3395-3560) and the deep read of Chapter 7. Every judgement about the radar reduction and about the c-model equations therefore rests on Wallace's prose in the book and on [memory]/[web] about mainstream results. Where a verdict depends on that gap I say so.

Mainstream view, stated fairly

1. Light speed. Special relativity (SR) postulates that light speed is c in every inertial frame, independent of source motion. The competing "emission" or ballistic idea (Ritz, 1908) says light leaves a source at c relative to the source, so a source moving at v gives c+v. De Sitter (1913) argued from double stars against it; that argument has been criticised (extinction by the intervening medium), and Wallace's cited Fritzius paper says de Sitter "failed to disprove" Ritz [read: line ~2870]. That criticism is fair, and the case against Ritz no longer rests on de Sitter. It rests on later, cleaner tests: - Alvager et al. (CERN, 1964): photons from neutral pions decaying at v/c >= 0.99975 travelled at 2.9977 +/- 0.0004 x 10^8 m/s, giving a bound |k| < 1e-4 on the source-velocity coefficient k [web: https://arxiv.org/pdf/0912.3818 and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Sitter_double_star_experiment search results]. - Brecher (Phys. Rev. Lett. 39, 1236, 1977): arrival times of X-ray pulses from binary sources bound k <= 2e-9, "the most direct and sensitive demonstration that the speed of light is independent of the velocity of the source" [web: http://webs.ftmc.uam.es/juancarlos.cuevas/Teaching/Brecher-PRL1977.pdf, as summarised in the search result]. - Cassini radio links (Bertotti, Iess, Tortora, Nature 425, 374, 2003): the Shapiro-delay parameter gamma = 1 + (2.1 +/- 2.3) x 10^-5 [web: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature01997]. This is a radio-ranging test through the Sun's field, the same kind of measurement Wallace says cannot be fitted with c.
2. Radar ranging of planets. All planetary and spacecraft radar/radio ranging is reduced with a light-time equation in a barycentric (solar-system centre-of-mass) frame in which light travels at c, with the positions of the transmitter and the reflector evaluated at their own (different) times, plus a relativistic gravitational term. The Venus ephemeris and the astronomical unit (AU) are adjusted in the same fit. Shapiro's own position, as relayed by Wallace, is that the radar data "are not consistent with the 'ballistic theory' of light, but are consistent with general relativity", citing Shapiro, Ash and Tausner, "Radar Verification of the Doppler Formula", Phys. Rev. Lett. 17, 933 (24 Oct 1966) [read: line ~3528]; the paper exists [web: https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.17.933]. Shapiro is an interested party (principal investigator of the analysis Wallace attacks, Air Force-funded per Wallace [read: line 3401]); that is his characterisation, beside Wallace's.
3. Mass-energy. A photon has E = pc, a particle has E^2 = (pc)^2 + (mc^2)^2. The "mass" of a photon is E/c^2 (relativistic mass, a bookkeeping quantity). Electron-positron annihilation conserves energy and momentum with no "motion created" (see claim 3).
4. Electron structure. The electron behaves as a point particle down to at least 1e-18 m in high-energy scattering and in g-2 comparisons [memory, high]. The strong interaction is described by quarks and gluons (QCD), tested by deep inelastic scattering, jets and lattice calculations [memory, high].
5. Cosmology. Redshift-distance relation, the cosmic microwave background (CMB), light-element abundances, and time dilation of supernova light curves support an expanding universe; stars shine by fusion (solar neutrino flux measured) [memory, high].

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Claim 1: Venus radar residuals show light speed c+v

a. Mathematics consistent? I cannot check the fit because the equations are not in the folder. What the book gives is one identity: with c+v, "D = t(c+v)/2 - tv/2 = tc/2"; with Einstein c, "D = tc/2 - tv/2" (Investigator's note quoting Friebe's online edition of Ch.5, same text as local) [web: https://www.ekkehard-friebe.de/FP_C5_LL.HTM]. The first line is arithmetically right. Notice what it says: under c+v, station motion cancels from the round-trip range. Under c, a term tv/2 remains. For an equatorial station speed v = 0.46 km/s (Earth's rotation) and a round trip of about 270 s near inferior conjunction (distance about 4.1e10 m, 2*4.1e10/3e8 = 273 s) [memory, high on the numbers, they are arithmetic], tv/2 is about 63 km, a delay of 0.2 ms per leg-sum, comparable to a few tenths of a millisecond. That is a size Wallace's "3 ms" can reach only with an ephemeris error added. The identity D = tc/2 - tv/2 is not what a reduction in a frame where light moves at c produces, because that frame's light-time equation uses the station position at emission and at reception separately. I treat Wallace's reduction as a different definition of "distance", not a demonstrated inconsistency in the c-reduction, but I could not verify his steps (source gap). Wallace's quantity "3 ms against expected error 10 microseconds" [read: line ~2509] compares observed-minus-computed residuals before an orbit fit to a measurement precision; the text calls 10 microseconds "the expected error from the best fit the Lincoln Lab could generate", which is ambiguous between precision of one measurement and quality of a fit. In 1961 the Venus ephemeris and AU were uncertain at the 1e-4 level or worse [memory, medium], and 3 ms corresponds to only about 900 km of range, so large pre-fit residuals are expected. That reading is mine, medium confidence; it needs the 1961-62 papers (Pettengill et al., AJ 67, 181; Muhleman, Holdridge and Block, AJ 67, 191 [web: Investigator, ADS]) to settle.

b. Consistent with experiment? The weight is on later, much more precise ranging, all reduced with constant c and agreeing: Mariner, Viking, Cassini (gamma to 2e-5, above) and lunar laser ranging to centimetres [memory, high]. A c+v effect of the size Wallace claims (0.2-0.4 ms, i.e. v/c of order 1e-6 of a 270 s trip) would be a hundred-thousand-fold larger than today's residuals. The source-velocity coefficient k is independently bounded at 1e-9 (Brecher). Wallace's own mention that JPL's Moyer formulation (position at reception time) is "nearly equivalent" to the Galilean c+v equation [read: line ~2826] is, in my reading, a confusion: evaluating the endpoints at their own times is what a constant-c light-time equation in a barycentric frame requires; it is not a c+v source-velocity law. Wallace himself concedes the JPL equation includes SR/GR time-dilation terms [read: line ~2830].

Support, not suppressed: (i) Wallace cites Standish (JPL, AAS Dec 1974) reporting "significant unexplained systematic variations" in interplanetary data fitted with empirical corrections [read: line ~2545]; I have not seen that report. In 1974 such residuals were attributed by the field to ephemeris and planetary-mass errors, not to light speed [memory, medium]. (ii) Tolchelnikova-Murri (Pulkovo) argues the 1961-62 Venus reductions were classical, not relativistic, and quotes Clemence (US Naval Observatory) at IAU Symposium 21 that the second-order terms "cannot be regarded as a new confirmation of relativity" [web: https://ritz-btr.narod.ru/tolchel.html, Investigator's Russian summary; I did not read the primary]. The Investigator says she does not claim c+v but that round-trip effects cancel; her title, however, is "Radar observations of Venus confirmed the classical (Galilean) rule of velocity addition", so her position sits nearer Wallace than the Investigator's "different reading" suggests. These two readings need her paper. A cancellation of the first-order effect in a round trip is physically the same observation as my point above: first-order radar tests discriminate poorly; second-order and Doppler tests are what matter. (iii) Sekerin (USSR) wrote to Wallace that he too computes c+v from double stars [read: line ~2862]; fully relayed through Wallace.

c. Tested? Wallace's own analysis, using the sparse published 1961 data he says were insufficient [read: line ~3473]. His request for the original data led to an Air Force card deck he judged unusable (Wallace's account via Friebe Ch.5). No independent replication of his residual analysis is known to me or to the Investigator. Published reply: Horedt and Ruck, Spectroscopy Letters 5, 455 (1972) "rediscuss some of the arguments and inconsistencies" in papers 1-15 against constancy [web: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00387017208065415]; full text not read, so I cannot say whether they treat the radar fit. Wegener and Ohrstrom (Nuovo Cimento B 30, 291, 1975) cite Wallace [web: Investigator, ADS]; not read.

d. If true: SR and the Maxwell-theory frame independence would fail; the Alvager and Brecher results, the Kennedy-Thorndike and Ives-Stilwell tests, muon storage-ring dilation and GPS timing would all need a separate explanation. Wallace also needs a preferred frame; see claim 4.

Verdict: Tested, not supported (strong form: that radar shows c+v). Not "refuted by calculation": I did not reproduce his fit. Caveat: the claimed Venus effect itself rests on Wallace's reduction of the 1961 data, which I could not verify; I rate the claim as superseded by later ranging, not as one that was properly tested against its own data by a neutral party. The weak form, that the early residuals were large and systematic, is probably true and unsurprising for an unfitted 1961 ephemeris [memory, medium].

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Claim 2: Einstein's second postulate is the linchpin; Shapiro admitted only c was tested

a. Mathematics. Not applicable (a claim about history and logic).

b/c. Facts. "Linchpin" is overstated but not absurd. SR needs it, but light-speed constancy was also checked directly after 1960 (Alvager 1964, Brecher 1977; Michelson-Morley-type isotropy tests) [web as above]. Wallace's quoted Einstein statements (1912 letter to Zangger; 1913 to Freundlich: "if the speed of light is the least bit affected by the speed of the light source, then my whole theory of relativity and theory of gravity is false" [read: line ~2905]) are taken by Wallace as an admission of fragility. They show Einstein regarded the test as decisive, which is what a testable theory does. Shapiro conversation: Wallace says that in the comment session after Shapiro's talk "he admitted that all his calculations were based on a constant speed of light c ... and he had not tested c+v" and that Shapiro "made no effort to challenge any of my arguments" [read: lines 3410-3414, 3473-3478]. This is a single first-person account, documented in one source (the book), with no second source found; the Texas Symposium proceedings discussion (Investigator: not found; the date Wallace gives, Dallas 1968, conflicts with an ADS item dated Dec 1967, unresolved) would settle it. Shapiro's side in writing, as Wallace reproduces it: ballistic theory is inconsistent with the radar Doppler data (17 Jan 1969). Wallace's reply, "You can't bluff me", is quoted from his own letter [read: line ~3541]. Both are in the record. Physically, it is entirely ordinary for a group to fit with c; a published mismatch with the c model would have appeared as large residuals, which it did not after the fit (modern results).

d. If true: the same as claim 1.

Verdict: the conversation: Not testable as stated from the folder (one account, awaiting the proceedings). The physics content (c+v was never tested): Tested, not supported (it has been tested, after 1964, by others, with null results).

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Claim 3: Inertial mass = photon virtual mass; internal circulation at c; dynamic ether

a. Consistent? The postulate is verbal [read: deep reader, Section 2]. Three problems: - Not a departure from standard physics. The complaints (virtual mass "somehow different", "motion is created", momentum created or destroyed in equal and opposite amounts) do not describe how the textbook treats e+ + e- -> 2 gamma: each photon has E = m_e c^2 = 0.511 MeV, p = E/c = m_e c, and net momentum is zero. The identification of photon E/c^2 with annihilated mass is already mainstream (E = mc^2). The real new content is the internal circulation. - Spin check (my calculation, verified). Take Wallace's simulated size: a rest particle rotates "slightly more than once" in 1.2e-22 s at speed c, so circumference <= 3.6e-14 m and radius r <= 5.7e-15 m. Angular momentum of mass m_e circulating at c at that radius: L = m_e c r = 9.109e-31 x 2.998e8 x 5.73e-15 = 1.57e-36 J s. Electron spin is hbar/2 = 5.27e-35 J s. The model gives about 1/34 of the spin. Requiring m_e c r = hbar/2 gives r = hbar/(2 m_e c) = 1.9e-13 m, 34 times larger (about the reduced Compton wavelength scale) and a circulation period of order 1e-21 s. (This agrees with the deep reader's flag M3.) Circulation at c on a Compton-scale radius is the idea of Zitterbewegung (Schrodinger 1930) and later Hestenes-type models [memory, high]; Wallace's radius differs from that idea by the factor 34. - The frame. The internal speed c needs a reference frame, and Wallace elsewhere says light speed is c+v and "a c+v model will have to be developed" [read: deep reader, Section 3]. He never says in which frame the internal speed is c, so the model is not well defined (deep reader M12; I concur).

Properties I-III (conservation of mass, momentum, "equality of action") are not stated quantitatively, so internal consistency cannot be tested (deep reader M1).

b. Established experiments. An ether as a compressible fluid: no measured medium effects on light (Michelson-Morley-type null results at 1e-17 fractional level in modern optical-cavity tests [memory, high]); Wallace answers that a dynamic ether "moves with the phenomena" and escapes. That makes it less falsifiable, not wrong. Electron properties (g-2 to 1e-13 agreement with QED [memory, high]) are not addressed by the book.

c. Tested? Only through Wallace's own computer program, whose results are described in prose (see claim 4). Atomic models: "fused electrons" (1970), replaced by neutrons (1971); the book gives one sentence [read: deep reader, Section 3].

d. If true: point-like electrons, QED and the Standard Model would have to be effective descriptions of a classical fluid.

Verdict (split): - Identification of photon E/c^2 with matter mass: Established (but as ordinary E = mc^2, not Wallace's departure). - Rest mass as internal circulation at c: Plausible, untested as an idea (Zitterbewegung-type models exist), but Wallace's realisation is Refuted by calculation for spin at his stated radius (34x too small). - A single dynamic ether obeying I-III describes all physics: Not testable as stated (no equations in the folder).

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Claim 4: Mass-in-cell computer model reproduces photons, 1/r electron mass, e-e forces, spin, gravity, nuclear forces; deviations below 1.1e-14 m; pion made of electrons and positrons

a. Mathematics. Reported only as program output: 12 cells of radius 2.8e-15 m per particle (about the classical electron radius r_e = 2.82e-15 m, so possibly an input rather than a result), time step 1e-25 s, "half-step integration", all cells at c, gravity as surface tension "good to 3 s.f. out to 1e-11 m" using BASICV at 13 significant figures [read: deep reader, Section 3]. Gravity between two electrons is about 2.4e-43 of their electrostatic force (G m_e^2 / (e^2/4 pi eps0)); for a model to reproduce both in one fluid it needs a coupling ratio of that size, which can only enter as a fitted parameter or an arbitrary surface-tension constant (deep reader M5). I cannot say which because the program is not in the folder. Hence "gravity explained" is unverified and, on the available description, probably a re-parametrisation. Pion: "104 [or 10^4] electrons and positrons" [read: deep reader]. The pi0 mass is 134.98 MeV = 264 m_e (my check: 134.98 / 0.511 = 264.1). A 104-particle body has 53 MeV of rest mass, so binding energy would have to add 82 MeV; a 10^4 body has 5110 MeV, requiring removal of 97% of the mass. Neither reading gives the pion with ordinary binding. Also an e+e- composite is expected to annihilate to photons on a timescale of order 1e-10 s or faster, while charged pions live 2.6e-8 s and neutral pions decay to two photons in 8.5e-17 s [memory, high]; both are simply unconnected to Wallace's description in the text.

b. Established experiments. The central quantitative prediction is that the Coulomb/Lorentz and gravitational force laws deviate when two electrons are closer than about 1.1e-14 m. Mainstream: electron-positron collider scattering (Bhabha scattering at PETRA, LEP) and g-2 find point-like behaviour to below 1e-18 m [memory, high]. A force deviation at 1e-14 m would have been seen as an anomaly in lepton-pair cross sections at GeV energies. A classical closest-approach estimate for equal charges: r = e^2/(4 pi eps0) / E = 1.44 eV nm / E. For Wallace's own 300 eV experiment r = 1.44 / 300 nm = 4.8e-3 nm = 4.8e-12 m, about 340 times larger than 1.4e-14 m. So his Eckerd College crossed-beam experiment (J. Chem. Phys. 66, 2108, 1977; agreement with Moller's cross section, 300 eV, 1.2 and 1.3 uA [read: deep reader, Section 6]) tests standard quantum mechanics and could not test his deviation prediction; it neither supports nor contradicts the mass-dynamics model. The reported agreement with Moller is a result, honestly reported, for the standard theory. The model also rejects quarks and QCD; deep inelastic scattering, jets and the pi0 -> gamma gamma rate depend on colour counting [memory, high].

c. Tested? By Wallace and two Eckerd College colleagues in computation only (1982, 1986); nobody outside tested the electron-size prediction or reproduced the program (no evidence either way in the Investigator's searches; ADS shows the 1973 paper cited once). Dismissed or ignored: the NSF proposal (1977, $159,512) was rejected February 1978 with reviewer reasoning quoted by Wallace: "no reason to abandon conventional and remarkably successful theories of electron and quark interactions" [read: facts.json, from Ch.2]. That is a stated judgement that the theory had no new data, not a test.

d. If true: the electron would have an extended structure scale of 1e-14 m, contradicting every scattering experiment above, QED, and the quark picture of hadrons.

Verdict (split): - The e-e force deviation below 1.1e-14 m and the extended 1/r electron: Refuted by calculation / by established experiment (point-like electron limits more than four orders of magnitude below 1e-14 m [memory, high]; the claim's own 300 eV test is irrelevant to it). - Pion made of 10^2 or 10^4 e+/e-: Refuted by calculation (mass budget above, either reading). - Photon emission, spin, gravity, nuclear forces from the program: Never properly tested (program and equations not available; no independent run; the unit and scale checks above raise doubts about "derived" versus "fitted"). - Overall wording "unified theory": Not testable as stated from the folder.

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Claim 5: Infinite, eternal universe; redshift not purely Doppler; recycling; pressure-induced annihilation powers stars, planets and quasars

a. Mathematics. No equations; verbal. b. Experiments. Against: CMB blackbody spectrum (2.725 K, FIRAS) and its anisotropy; time dilation of Type Ia supernova light curves by (1+z), which tired-light redshift would not give (Goldhaber et al. 2001) [memory, high]; surface brightness (Tolman) test [memory, medium]; stellar fusion shown directly by solar neutrinos [memory, high]. Pressure-induced annihilation would make gamma rays at 0.511 MeV and total conversion rates that are not observed in the Sun's or Jupiter's output [memory, medium]. Jupiter: Wallace's own original text says "2 1/2" times its insolation [read: deep reader Section 0, CP437 decode]; present measurements give about 1.7 [memory, medium; not web-checked]. The excess is explained by residual contraction heat and helium differentiation, which gives a number of the right order without annihilation [memory, medium]. In his favour: Arp's discordant-redshift associations and the M82 filaments [read: deep reader Section 5] are real published observations. The mainstream reading attributes the Arp pairs to chance projection and selection effects, and M82's filaments to a starburst-driven galactic wind [memory, medium]. They are contested by interpretation, not shown to be absent. c. Tested? Tired-light/steady-state variants were tested and lost; Wallace's specific ether version was not tested by anyone else. d. If true: the Big Bang, CMB origin, nucleosynthesis, and nuclear astrophysics would change. Verdict (split): non-expanding eternal universe with non-Doppler redshift: Tested, not supported (CMB, supernova time dilation). Pressure annihilation as stellar and planetary power source: Tested, not supported (solar neutrinos, absence of annihilation signature). Hafele-Keating as an absolute-frame effect: Refuted by calculation: Hafele and Keating's own prediction (-40 +/- 23 ns east, +275 +/- 21 ns west) is made in a non-rotating Earth-centred frame with ordinary SR and GR terms; the measured -59 +/- 10 and +273 +/- 7 ns agree [memory, high on structure, medium on exact error bars]. The east/west asymmetry arises from Earth's rotation, not from a galactic frame. The Investigator lists A. G. Kelly's FOIA reanalysis of the raw Hafele-Keating data and Essen's critique as a challenge to the raw dataset [web: sciliterature.50webs.com per Investigator]; I have not read them. Those critics dispute the data analysis; they do not supply a Wallace-type absolute-frame calculation. Later airborne and satellite (GPS) clocks agree with GR+SR [memory, high].

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Claim 6: Journals, referees and funders obstructed the work; QCD, quarks and relativity are pathological science (Langmuir)

a. Mathematics. Not applicable. b-c. Evidence. This is a sociological claim, not a physics claim. What is documented, as Wallace's account unless stated: - PRL 1969: first referee "completely positive" (suitable "if revised", "deserves immediate publication if the radar data can be compared directly to geocentric distances"), second report strongly negative on different typewriter, editor Goudsmit first said a second referee, then that he had erred and it was the first [read: lines 2530-2555]. One source (the book). No second source found. The referee report itself is not reproduced; Wallace quotes it. - Physics Today letters declined 1985 onward after the editor change (Lubkin letter 4 Jan 1985) [read: lines ~2840-2900]; Sky and Telescope declined to review (Fienberg) [read: line ~2875]. - Spectroscopy Letters: Robinson letters 4/4/79 and 7/23/90, reported only through Wallace, about "very negative reader reaction" and "anonymous letters and phone calls" [read: deep reader Section 1]. Counter-evidence of access: the journal published four Wallace papers 1969-71 (invited by Robinson, 13 Oct 1969) and a rebuttal paper in 1972 (Horedt and Ruck) [web: tandfonline]. So the journal both gave him a platform and answered him. - NSF rejection 1978, reviewer reasoning quoted above. - Santilli's allegation that Coleman, Glashow and Weinberg blocked his salary is Santilli's, an interested party, relayed second-hand [read: deep reader Section 8]; I do not rate it either way. Weighing: the individual events are plausible and documented by letters Wallace says he holds; the record of dissent for outsiders is thin by nature. They do not bear on whether the physics is right. A rejection with a negative referee does not show suppression, and a 1969 PRL decision on a paper that fits residuals from sparse data is a normal editorial outcome as well as a possible unfair one. Neutral source needed: the PRL files or the referee reports, which Wallace says he holds. Langmuir's symptoms (from the book, lines 605-720): maximum effect barely above noise, claims of great accuracy, fantastic theories, ad hoc rescue of criticism. Applied to Wallace's own work: his radar effect is a residual pattern in sparse data and the ether is made flexible to avoid contradiction ("because of flexibility of the dynamic ether concept, I do not anticipate any major problems"); the criteria cut in both directions. Applied to SR and quarks, they do not fit: the measured quantities (Brecher k < 2e-9; QCD jets; cross sections) are not near the noise. d. If true: the review system would be shown to filter on belief; a sociology-of-science question. Verdict: Not testable as stated as physics. The events: documented in one published source (the 1993 book), no independent check yet. The Langmuir comparison for SR/QCD: Not supported by the experimental record above.

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Investigator's findings that bear on my claims (kept whatever the verdict)

• 1969 and 1971 radar papers free as PDFs at GSJ and sciliterature.50webs; I could not use them (not downloaded). They would close the source gap on claim 1.
• Tolchelnikova-Murri (professional astrometrist): independent argument that the Venus reductions were classical and that Clemence regarded the second-order radar terms as not new confirmation of SR (secondary Russian summary; her primary papers not read). Weight: real, from a professional, and unrebutted in the record I have seen. It reads, in my estimate, as a critique of what radar proves, not as a measurement of c+v.
• Horedt and Ruck 1972 reply in the same journal, with 15 papers listed against constancy of c: shows a body of c+v literature and a contemporaneous published reply.
• Rapier (Burns and Roe) VLBI of 3C 279 cites Wallace; claim 1 and 5 link to quasar kinematics; not evaluated.
• Malykin 2010 and Malykin and Romanets 2012 (Russian Academy review of the ballistic hypothesis, cite Wallace): likely give the mainstream and the history; not read.
• Kelly (FOIA) and Essen on Hafele-Keating: noted under claim 5.
• Shapiro's published position (17 Jan 1969 letter via Wallace; PRL 17, 933): gives Shapiro's side beside Wallace's conversation account.
• Bio data: Wallace 1933-1997, Leningrad 1989/1991 conferences [web: NPA wiki per Investigator]. A quoted characterisation "American radio astronomer" in a later paper differs from the book (which has no such career) and is unreliable.
• Absence-of-record anomaly: no obituary, no later papers than 1990 (ninth and "last research paper" is 1986 [read: deep reader]). Competing explanations: end of funding after 1978 (NSF); age/health before 1997 death; editor hostility (his account); work continued as book and conferences (1989, 1991, 1993). The data to decide: Eckerd College archives, Tampa Bay Times 1997 (listed but not reached by the Investigator).

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Corrections to Step 1

1. claims.md claim 2 says "Shapiro's side is not given". Not correct: Chapter 5 relays Shapiro's letter of 13 and 17 Jan 1969 that the radar data are "not consistent with the 'ballistic theory'... but consistent with general relativity" and points to the 1966 PRL paper [read: lines ~3516-3532]. It is Shapiro's position as relayed by Wallace and is an interested party's characterisation.
2. facts.json "Chapters 4-6 rest on the digest only". Fine as a statement of Step 1, but the radar passages in Chapter 5 are in the plain text and can be read; I did and they are the basis of the above. The "30-day term" is the Earth-Moon term in Wallace's text [read: line ~3438]; Step 1's 3 ms versus 10 microseconds comparison is ambiguous about what the 10 microseconds measures (best Lincoln fit versus measurement precision), see claim 1.
3. facts.json says "Jupiter radiating 2.5 times" correct per the CP437 decode; the extraction gave "2". Modern value about 1.7 [memory, medium].
4. Investigator's note on Tolchelnikova says she "does NOT claim radar shows c+v". Her cited title is "confirmed the classical (Galilean) rule of velocity addition"; the cancellation argument is in the Investigator's summary of her text, but I cannot reconcile the two without her paper. Treat as unresolved.
5. Investigator's "Bears on claim 11" refers to facts.json key_claims numbering (Hafele-Keating), not claims.md claim numbers; in claims.md the Hafele-Keating point is inside claim 5.
6. Texas Symposium date. Unresolved. Wallace's own letter chronology (letters to Shapiro start 26 Dec 1968 and say he "promised to send" the paper [read: line ~3503]) is consistent with a December 1968 meeting; the Investigator's ADS item dated Dec 1967 may refer to a different meeting. Neither is checked against the proceedings.
7. Deep reader M9 (Andrews steel-ether density) I did not verify; M13 and M7 I confirmed arithmetically (pi0 = 264 m_e). Deep reader M3 (spin 34 times too small) I recomputed and confirm: 1.57e-36 versus 5.27e-35 J s.
8. Web verification (budget 3 of about 6 used): Brecher/Alvager bounds, PRL 17, 933 existence, and Cassini gamma are now [web]. Still [memory]: Hafele-Keating prediction error bars (medium), Jupiter 1.7 ratio (medium), 1961 ephemeris uncertainty (medium), pion lifetimes (high), electron point-like limits (high). The one verdict most dependent on a medium [memory] item is the claim 1 reading of the 3 ms residual; I label it Tested, not supported with that caveat rather than Refuted.

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Verdict summary