Page 24 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - October / November 2018

24 The Alien In The Photo

The Curious Case Of The

Alien In The Photo And

The Mystery To Solve

Continued from Page 23

She was one of the first women to graduate
from the University of Minnesota’s law school
and had married a geologist named Bernard.
The couple moved to Midland, Texas. Bernard
became head of the powerful West Texas
Geological Society. They never had children.
They roamed the world.
Beason and Dew started to suspect Hilda
might have known Eisenhower’s wife, Mamie.
(Eisenhower’s great-granddaughter Laura once
claimed the president actually met aliens while
he was president.) They wondered how deep
Hilda and Bernard’s connections went. Looking
at a map, they realized Roswell, New Mexico, is
250 miles from Midland, Texas. They thought
that seemed close.
“You start to fill in the blanks,” Dew
says.
Carey took a photo of one of the slides
to an old associate at the University of Toronto,
Richard Doble, who noticed the figure had half
as many ribs as a human, no collarbone and its
arms attached to the top ribs.
“The more you look at it, the more you
researchers certain they can find evidence “Say it to my face!” Schmitt wanted to
realize it is not from earth,” Doble later said.
others have not. “You don’t need an advanced scream to his invisible attackers.
But finding other opinions was
degree to be a UFO researcher,” says Kevin
challenging. Schmitt says American scientists
Randle a UFO researcher himself, as well as an By early 2015, Beason and Dew knew they had
“hold up a cross like to a vampire” when the
author, blogger and radio host. “In 10 minutes no choice but to reveal the slides. The pressure
word extraterrestrial is used. He and Carey also
you can say: ‘I’m a UFO researcher’ and start to do so was extreme and Dew needed money to
worried that any Roswell evidence taken to a
posting on [internet message] boards.” fund his documentary. Dew spoke to a reality
US college that received federal funding would
Many of these “investigators” turn on show producer, hoping to build a TV special
be shipped to the military and disappear forever.
each other, and Carey and Schmitt could hear around the slides, but the offer was too small.
Dew still wasn’t sure he believed in
the sniping about their slides. People wondered The only appealing proposal came from
UFOs but he was starting to think the figure in
what they were hiding. They couldn’t respond – Jamie Maussan, an investigative journalist
the slides was something. The more he went
they had signed a non-disclosure. based in Mexico City. Depending on whom you
around Roswell, the stranger people acted.
Finally, Carey couldn’t hold back. While talk to, Maussan is either a fearless crusader
“Does the government know you have this?”
speaking at a UFO conference in November tackling environmental issues or a sensationalist
one woman asked. Several others told him to
2014 at Washington DC’s American University with an unhealthy UFO obsession.
“be safe”.
he blurted: “We have the smoking gun!” Maussan wanted a great slide-revealing
Soon, Dew grew paranoid. He worried
He told the audience about Hilda and spectacle in Mexico City. He said attitudes
powerful people were interested in his slides.
Bernard, about the Eisenhowers, about the about UFOs are more open there than in the US.
He wondered why the same white van kept
slides in the box, about the shriveled body in the He imagined renting the Auditorio
parking in front of his house. His wife thought
pictures and about the Toronto anthropologist Nacional, Mexico City’s grandest theatre, and
his UFO pursuit was absurd and wanted nothing
who said the figure wasn’t human. said they could sell a live stream of the event
of it.
Within days, the entire UFO world knew around the world. He had a name for his
Finally, he loaded a copy of the slides on
about the alien in the slides. extravaganza: BeWitness. He promised Beason
to his phone and went to Roswell. He showed
But since Beason and Dew wouldn’t and Dew enough money to fund a documentary.
the photos to the children of witnesses and
show the slides publicly until they proved the Beason and Dew hated the idea: it
filmed their responses. Then he tracked down
body was an alien, the UFO community was sounded like an overblown fiasco. But Maussan
Eleazar Benavides, an air force base veteran
flustered. Tom Carey had access to the smoking was their best option, so in early 2015 they
who claims to have seen the aliens when they
gun, and he couldn’t show it? Rather than hail signed an agreement for BeWitness, and sent
were brought to the Roswell base.
Carey’s proclamation, the message boards and Maussan a scan of the slides. He took the scan
“That’s what I saw in 1947,” Benavides
chatrooms that make up the vast extraterrestrial to Mexico’s National Forensic Institute where
said after looking at the slides.
internet buried it in scorn. researchers found 20 anomalies in the figure’s
“That was a chill-inducing moment for
“Smells like bullshit,” said one Reddit body that they said made it different from a
us,” Dew says.
poster. human’s, including the extra-large head, four
Dew started to put together the trailer for
“Sasquatch community is rife with sets of ribs instead of 10, the position the eyes,
his documentary, which gives a flavor of his
charlatans like this,” said another. and the fact it lacked a pelvis.
truth-seeking efforts.
“A carefully-prepared scam,” wrote a On 5 May 2015, Cinco de Mayo, nearly
UFO blogger. 7,000 people paid between $20 and $86 to
By the fall of 2014, whispers trickled through
Carey and Schmitt were shocked. While attend BeWitness.
the UFO community that Carey and Schmitt had
accustomed to criticism for their research, they The show was more than four hours
photographs of a Roswell alien.
lived shielded from the modern internet’s rage. long, the list of speakers endless.
The world of UFO research can be a
Carey couldn’t comprehend someone calling
vicious one, filled with self-proclaimed
him “a hemorrhoid with glasses”. (Continued on Page 31)