Page 49 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - August/September 2017

Bigfoot, blue man and flying saucer hoaxes 49

Bigfoot, blue man and

flying saucer hoaxes in

1958

Continued from Page 48

The classic hoax is pulled on everybody in a
given area, which may be a town or, in a few
magnificent deceptions, an entire country. Then,
slowly, with the finesse of the artist he is, the
master hoaxer lets his duped audience in on the
joke… Indignant police investigate… The
hoaxer is caught (he usually helps considerably
by giving himself up)... The people he
bamboozled are outraged… But finally they
laugh at themselves.
Unlike craven, minor-league hoaxers,
the truly great hoaxer never says he’s sorry.
Such a hoaxer is Frank Russell of
Biggleswade, England, whose flying saucer
stunt was the best of 1958.
For almost a year, Russell had
Biggleswade’s 5,394 citizens convinced that
Martians were about to drop in on them.
Ever since a night in the summer of
1957, when the first saucer was spotted, gullible
Biggleswade - waited for the first favorite earth lighted on both ends and hooked up to a clock something else up my sleeve. But I’m not telling
village. Discreet inquiries into the matter were works. Attached to one end of the rod was a what it is.”
begun by high British officials. small rocket. An ingenious timing mechanism Whatever Russell is planning this time, it
Scores of eyewitnesses saw the saucer. made the saucer light up for four and a half had better be good, for old Biggleswade just
Space-age home guard patrols were established minutes, then black out. Five seconds later, a isn’t a naive as it was.
to be ready in case the Martians dropped in to gadget set off the rocket - and the saucer looked The other day a reporter visited
visit. The only unexcited Biggleswaders were as if it was speeding off into space. Biggleswade to see how the town is reacting
TV fans who complained that the interplanetary “I chose dark nights, and it really looked from being hoaxed. He’ll never be the same,
vehicle interfered with reception. very effective,” Russell recalls with pride. either. Here’s his report:
“Once, we had just got the balloon “I walked into the White Hart Inn, where
Saucer in the Sky Was Spectacular airborne when we heard a car coming. At the I met the proprietor, a level-eyed, down-to-earth
moment the clouds cleared and the moon shone man named George Brixey.
Now somewhat disillusioned, Whitworth has on the balloon. “As I sipped a drink, George introduced
given up his interest in flying saucers. Though “The car stopped and the driver got out. me to his pet boxer dog, Beau Geste, who, it
he still believes there may be “something to He looked up at the moon and then stared at the seems, was chased by a herd of cows when he
them,” he adds: “I don’t want anything more to silver object above. Honestly, I’ve never seen a was a pup.
do with them. I believe many of these strange bloke jump into a car so fast. I’ll swear he took “‘Frightened him so much that he forgot
happenings are hoaxes and the culprits would the next corner on two wheels.” how to bark,” said George, adding in a matter-
seem to be organized on a national scale.” After he revealed himself as the pilot of of-fact voice: “Now he moos - just like a cow.”
Russell, an amateur inventor who works the saucer, some grouches complained to the “I smiled, bleakly.
as a factory hand in an engineering firm, put a Ministry of Civil Aviation that Russell had been “‘You don’t believe me?” George asked.
great deal of effort and ingenuity into his hoax. cluttering up the airways and should be ‘Come on, Beau… come on, boy. What did the
His plot began, he says, when he heard prosecuted. Ministry officials conferred, but moo cow say, boy? What did the moo cow say,
that Biggleswade officials were looking around soon dropped the case without even boy? What did the moo cow say?’
for ideas to attract tourists. Russell put his idea investigating. “Beau Geste opened a sad eye. He raised
to two friends, Jim Bates, 40, a member of the “I have not heard one word of his huge head up.
town council, and another man who still insists complaint,” Russell says today. “Everyone “And he mooed! So help me - he
upon anonymity. regards it as a good laugh.” mooed!” []
(“Peter,” Russell explains, “doesn’t This isn’t exactly true. Ask someone in
want to be exposed because his wife thought the Biggleswade whether they believe in flying
whole episode was downright ridiculous. You saucers and you get an icy stare and a thundering
see, he might cop it if she found out that he was “No!”
involved.”) Most Biggleswaders, however,
Russell, who has built a successful one- thoroughly enjoyed the last flight of Russell’s
man submarine and patented an underwater saucer. It was at Biggleswade’s summer festival
harpoon gun, set to work on his flying saucer, and even Russell’s wife, who had not been
which cost him about $14. (He had built a small exactly enthusiastic about his prank, came
one, some years before, for his two children, around.
Roy, 11, and Sandra, 9.) “It was very impressive,” she says.
He made a cone-shaped wire frame and
covered it with aluminum paper, in which he cut Saucer-Spoofer Has Another Hoax
portholes. The contraption was equipped with Plan
lights inside and out. A weather balloon, filled
with hydrogen Russell got from his factory, took A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE
Russell himself is unrepentant. Winking
the saucer up to a height of 600 feet. with DR. KEVIN RANDLE
roguishly, he recently confided, “I have
Underneath the saucer was a rod, www.XZBN.net