"Alien Autopsy" Film a Hoax Concludes Scientific Organization

A controversial film that purports to depict the autopsy of a space alien and thus substantiate claims that a flying saucer crashed in 1947 at Roswell, New Mexico, has been branded a hoax by the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), headquartered in Amherst, New York.

The "documentary," promoted by a British marketing agency that formerly handled Walt Disney products, is scheduled to be aired August 28 on the Fox network.

Since the film first surfaced earlier this year, CSICOP investigators have monitored developments in the bizarre case, networked with those who viewed the film at a special showing in England, and examined close-up photographs of an "alien corpse."

Even at face value, according to CSICOP, the film raises suspicion. Recently released Air Force files indicate that the wreckage at Roswell actually came from a balloon-borne surveillance assemblage, launched as part of secret Project Mogul and intended to monitor acoustic emissions from anticipated Soviet nuclear testing. In fact, materials from the launch match contemporary descriptions of the Roswell debris, including that given by the daughter of the rancher upon whose property the unusual object fell.

Additional factors consistent with hoaxing include the absence of any prior historical record for the film, the suspicious circumstances under which it surfaced, and a long tradition of Roswell crashed-saucer hoaxes. (Indeed, the film fails to agree even with earlier purported eyewitness testimony about the alleged autopsy.)

Various journalists, UFO researchers, special-effects experts, and scientists who have viewed the film offered additional objections: that the film bore a bogus, non-military codemark; that the photographer's alleged military status had not been verified; and that the injuries sustained by the extraterrestrials were inconsistent with an aircrash. The level of realism was debated, with some believing the alien body they saw was a dummy while others speculated it was an altered human corpse. One of many suspicious elements was the fact that close-up views of the internal organs were out of focus.

Although the film was supposedly authenticated by Kodak, only the leader tape and a single frame were submitted for examination, not the entire footage. In fact, a Kodak spokesman told The Sunday Times of London: "There is no way I could authenticate this. I saw an image on the print. Sure it could be old film, but it doesn't mean it is what the aliens were filmed on."

CSICOP investigator Joe Nickell stated, "This film has all the earmarks of an obvious hoax."

And CSICOP chairman Paul Kurtz, Professor Emeritus at the State University of New York at Buffalo, commented: "The Roswell myth should be permitted to die a deserved death. Whether or not we are alone in the universe will have to be decided on the basis of better evidence than that provided by the latest bit of Roswell fakery." Kurtz added: "Television executives have a responsibility not to confuse programs designed for entertainment with news documentaries. They ought not to present sensationalized and fictionalized accounts as factual claims and thus mislead the public."

Related Information

• 20/20 Alien Autopsy

• Extra's Alien Interview

• The Truly Dangerous Co. analyzes the effects in the "alien autopsy" film.

• Search CSICOP: autopsy, Roswell, Project Mogul

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