 A rotten egg: the plot“Investigative journalist” Ross Coulthart (see: Jim’s ball) recently told a story on his Need To Know podcast (Aug 4, 2023) about an egg-shaped craft discovered in the 1980s that was analyzed in a UFO reverse engineering (RE) program at Area 51 in the 1990s. The story comes from a new source (let’s call him Bill) who sent Coulthart a photo of his uncle's patch that Coulthart is claiming comes from a RE program, along with a photo of his team, and sufficient evidence to convince Coulthart that Bill’s great uncle (let's call him Gruncle) worked at Area 51 for contractor EG&G from 1997-2014 and that Bill has talked to AARO about it for 45 minutes (with what amounts to a third-hand story). Gruncle never saw the egg-shaped craft for himself. According to Bill, Gruncle's job of putting data from human tech into storage vaults. He never saw UFOs or aliens or even data about UFOs or aliens. Gruncle was told about an alien reverse engineering program by the senior engineer in charge of that program, when he started work in 1997. The senior engineer described an egg-shaped craft, silverish-grey, featureless, and the size of an SUV. It was never cracked open, was impenetrable to X-rays, but was nevertheless concluded to be a “probe craft from another planet”. He retired the next year and Gruncle died last year, so we'll just have to take Bill's word for all this. Later, Gruncle saw hanging on the wall of a secure data storage room at Area 51 a “close-up crystal-clear” “huge image” of “the same exact object” (i.e. a featureless silver egg he'd never seen in person). Coulthart was sent the one and only photo that Bill sneakily took of Gruncle's insignia patch from the program (he took it while Gruncle was sleeping).
In showing the patch, Coulthart’s worst nightmare came true: it got analyzed.
Here I lay out the problems with Coulthart’s story and his source, and present the actual origin of the patch. The evidence comes from Twitter users' interactions with Bill as well as research done on Metabunk.
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7/21/2023 3 Comments Bright lights of Salem, 1952 In 1952, Shell R. Alpert, US Coast Guard photographer, shot this formation of four bright lights through the window of his photo lab in Salem MA, in the middle of the 2-week “Washington flap”.
It’s hailed as a classic UFO photo. It was in all the papers! Was it a genuine UFO? A misunderstanding? Or a hoax?  "Vengeance is mine"
As part of my research into the PR Disaster Hypothesis for the Westall school sighting in 1966, in Dec 2022 I corresponded with Steven Thorn, the pseudonymous author of a memoir about the HIBAL project whose book I cited on my Westall pages. He worked at Mildura from 1963 for four years and wrote the book around 2018 (published 2021).
Some of Steven's memories in 2022 contradicted what he'd written about a few years earlier. He flew on the tracking plane for HIBAL missions and did not recall ever going further south than Charlton VIC (250km/160mi from Mildura), despite evidence of one mission reaching Bendigo (another 100km/60mi further southeast) and in his own book a mission that reached Salt Creek in SA (315km/190mi southwest). And he "did not recall any special NASA flights", only piggybacking by Adelaide University, despite describing special NASA piggyback missions in his book. I mention these examples only to show that memory is fallible. Steven told me the crew was "sworn to secrecy" regarding the HIBAL missions, but that there was chatter in the tearoom. 5/16/2023 3 Comments All Aboard with Rex Heflin Rex Heflin's 3 UFO polaroids (colorized), Santa Ana CA, Aug 3, 1965 Just because a vintage UFO photo has been analyzed by experts and pronounced either genuine or, at the very least, undebunked, doesn't mean we shouldn't take another look at it.
In 1965, while on the job taking photos of road signs that needed replacing, Rex Heflin took three shots of a UFO passing over the road with his Polaroid 101 camera. For some reason he didn't get out of his vehicle first. He estimated the UFO was 1/8 mile (200 meters) away and 150 feet (46 meters) up in the air. My immediate instinctual reactions to these photos are (1) it looks like a small, close object, and (2) it looks like a simple machined object from an Earthly factory, or the most boring UFO in UFO history. But instincts aren't enough to debunk the fanciful tale of an honest-man-who-never-retracted, so let's take a closer look. 11/21/2022 1 Comment Lyin' Lavvy I've turned many of my Twitter threads about Anjali into third-density mini-blogs across two pages - a more readable format and a backup in case Twitter self-implodes. If you're new to the doomed Expedition of the Millennium and the coming Anjapocalypse, these articles will give you an idea of how the story unfolded. The pages take a while to load, but you'll learn...
 Steve Pierce was 17 years old in 1975 when he fell under suspicion of covering up Travis Walton's murder Steve Pierce is one of the seven witnesses to Travis Walton’s 1975 UFO and “abduction”. I’ve been corresponding with him since July 2021. It’s been a rocky road. Over time, he’s opened up about doubts that he doesn't voice on podcasts. His thoughts have shifted.
A reflexive reaction from many experiencers is to assume skeptics are accusing them of lying. I have always told Steve I think he was duped, and he has always struck me as someone very concerned with getting the details right. He was initially angry with me for explaining the many indications this incident was a hoax, and even when we came to a friendlier understanding he has been reluctant to consider the possibility. Even so, he did express doubts about parts of the story. He considers Travis to be a liar and “the kind of guy who went to a party and everyone else left.” He says Mike never paid him, and told lies about him that ended up in Travis's book and which Travis refuses to correct. These things may seem trivial in the grand scheme of things, but they're important to him. A few days ago, Steve wrote to me: “It was a hoax. 9/14/2022 0 Comments LARPing on Reddit While Charlie Wiser does not use any alts on social media, it's up to others to decide whether or not they want or need alts. Not my business.
However, when someone is deliberately exploiting known weaknesses to manipulate others in a community (which I'll loosely define as a group using a platform to discuss a topic - #ufotwitter on Twitter, UFO-related subreddits, etc.), I have thoughts about it, especially if that user has gone one step further and attempted to gain people's trust with a personal touch - in DMs.  Balwyn Bell, 1966 (detail) I've written before about the little red flag in a case that can't be reconciled with witness statements being true. Once that nugget of truth is forgotten, and the hoax is given free rein, laziness sets in. The original research and documentation are forgotten in favor of the re-re-repeated myth.
What if the answer was back there at the start all along? When the nugget comes to light, the case falls apart. When the gods are smiling, that nugget is also hilarious.  Mike Rogers, crew boss and family man, and the sketch of the UFO he drew for the local paper in Nov 1975 Travis Walton is one of the world’s most famous alien abductees. His story has survived largely because of the six witnesses who have never recanted, including logging crew boss Mike Rogers.
Recently I corresponded with Mike’s ex-wife “K”. In 1975 she and Mike were married with four very young daughters and living in Snowflake AZ. |
Charlie WiserI'm blogging about the Three-Dollar Kit. Archives
August 2023
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