Page 63 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - June 2015 Edition

‘Roswell Alien’ a Mummified Boy
'Roswell Alien' Photo
Revealed as Mummified
Boy
Benjamin Radford
Discovery News
Earlier this month at a UFO conference in
Mexico City two photographs claimed to have
been found in a trunk in Sedona and depicting
an alien body that crashed in Roswell in 1947
were revealed.
The images, which have created a buzz
among UFO believers, depict a small human-
shaped figure with an enlarged head—
apparently in a display case with an unreadable
placard, oddly enough.
Low-resolution images had been
circulating for some time, and several skeptical
researchers (including myself here on
Discovery News, I modestly note) identified the
“Roswell alien” as a mummified child.
However those promoting the photos as
authentic, such as Jaime Maussan, the Mexican
UFO expert who orchestrated the conference,
insisted that it could not possibly be a mummy.
A Reuters news story featured video of UFO
proponent Richard Dolan at the conference
claiming, without providing any
documentation, that experts had ruled out the
mummy explanation: “Analysis of the body …
suggested this is not a mummy and not a human,
not a mammal and not a model.”
Finally the truth was revealed when a
slide of the image was examined and “A
member of The Roswell Slides Research Team
used a newly acquired source image of the
placard seen in front of the body. By
manipulating the commercial software,
SmartDeblur, he managed to significantly clear
up the blurred text.” The sign in front of the
“Roswell alien” reads: “Mummified Body of
Two Year Old Boy.”
It is followed by a mostly-legible short may think what they want; I am satisfied with
description of the piece and concludes, as many
museum signs do, with an acknowledgement
stating that it was loaned by a man in San
Francisco.
An identical photo was later found with
the complete information: “Mummified Body
of Two Year Old Boy. At the time of burial the
body was clothed in a slip-over cotton shirt.
Burial wrappings consisted of three small cotton
blankets. Loaned by Mr. S. L. Palmer, San
Francisco, California.”
Thus the mystery is solved: It was a
mummified body all along. It’s not clear
whether or not those promoting the slides knew
that they were not what they were claimed to be
or if they themselves were fooled, but the case
serves as an object lesson.
The “Roswell alien” photograph was
claimed by its promoters as having defied
explanation despite three years of extensive
research and investigations (presumably by
well-qualified scientists). Yet through
investigation and crowdsourcing the mystery
was solved in less than two days. Why did
people believe it?
Part of the answer lies in the appeal to
science; the audience was assured that the
photos had passed scientific muster and were
therefore credible. In explaining what led to his
previously publicly endorsing the slides, Dolan
wrote that “I felt the overall picture presented
was compelling. The analyses by Jose de Jesus
Zalce Benitez, Richard Doble, and Dr. Luis
Antonio de Alba Galindo argued that the body
depicted was not a human being. Since I am not
a physiologist, I never felt qualified to debate
that point.”
Dolan’s response raises a larger question every few years. As long as there’s another
of why he (or anyone else) would assume that a
figure that looks exactly like a human—
complete with eyes, a mouth, arms, legs,
apparent ribcage, and so on (albeit with an
enlarged head characteristic of a child)—could
be conclusively determined by experts as non-
human from nothing more than a blurry
photograph.
A photograph is merely a two-
dimensional representation of an object, and
contains very little information about its
subject. Photographs are subject to many optical
illusions and tricks of perspective (as can be
easily seen by the countless tourists posed as
holding up the Leaning Tower of Pisa); it’s hard
to imagine upon what basis these experts could
possibly determine it was not what it appears to
be: a mummified human. Dolan simply took
them at their word when told it couldn’t be
human.
Referring to the bogus photos as
“inevitable bumps in the road,” Dolan
acknowledged in a Facebook post that “I am
aware that there are those who are disappointed
with me over my connection to the recent event
in Mexico City. Some are even angry…. Critics
my actions, and that is all that matters to me.”
Robert Sheaffer, a veteran UFO critic
and author of the “Bad UFOs” blog, told
Discovery News that “If the slide promoters
were seeking credibility (as opposed to a quick
buck), they could not have made a worse choice
than Maussan… He has made a lucrative career
peddling dodgy photos and videos of UFOs,
alien beings, and the like. He previously
promoted a skinned dead squirrel monkey as an
alien creature…. While the fiasco of the
Roswell Slides was a huge embarrassment to
‘Roswell research,’ and to UFOlogy in general,
53
there were nonetheless some hopeful aspects of
it. Many well-known UFO researchers were
skeptical of claimed ‘smoking gun’ photos of
unknown origin and content, and there was
excellent cooperation between skeptics and
UFO proponents to solve the riddle of the
Roswell Slides.”
Despite the fact that the crash of a
weather balloon in Roswell, New Mexico,
happened nearly 70 years ago, dubious “newly
found” eyewitnesses and photos seem to surface
dollar to be wrung out the mystery, they will
likely continue to surface—shortly before being
debunked.[]
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