As regular readers already know, the believer groups in
"cereology" hold many dark secrets. Sometimes your
Editor is lucky enough to be let in on these secrets. Sometimes
these secrets come out more by luck than by chance. This story is
an example of the latter.
In March 1994 Terence Meaden received a 3 page letter from
someone who has requested anonymity (name and address on file).
The revelations in this letter again knocks big holes in the case
that has been made by Colin Andrews, George Wingfield and others
that crop circles and associated UFO reports are caused by an
alien intelligence. many sensible people have long suspected that
some technically minded official Skeptics may have been
responsible for some of the UFO footage that has been shot in
Wiltshire. Now "CM" from Wiltshire has handed us
evidence which seems to support that contention. This is what she
has to say :
"Dr Dr Meaden, Just before Christmas [1993], some friends and I were having a bite to eat in The Bear at Devizes and somehow we got on to the subject of corn circles. There was a bit of an argument going on and we were getting a bit heated !
There was a group of men near us and two came over. They said they had seen most of the crop circles and that they provided the lights [UFO sightings]. For a moment we were flummoxed, but they showed us photos of them in the corn circles with a remote controlled model plane disguised as a disc [spaceship]. It certainly looked convincing. They said they used torches at night, but had used the plane in daylight and at least two videos had been made by people thinking the disc was a genuine part of the circle mystery. They knew some of the circle makers. They thought they were talking to old ladies who would think no more of it, but what they didn't know was that I was deeply involved with research into the Warminster research of UFOs in the 1970s.
I happen to think hoaxers mar any research and are a bloody nuisance at the least !
So I enclose information of the hoaxers at Warminster [a second letter], I certainly learnt a lot about trickery on that theme. I don't know if it will be of any use to you. I expect the torches of today are a bit different to [those of] the seventies. Yours etc"
Well ! Unless this is MBF Services-style dis-information it
seems that we have a potential answer to several celebrated UFO
films. Readers will recall - for example - that in the Alexander
film there was a stiff breeze blowing across Alexander's vantage
point. Could this breeze have masked the sound of a small
remotely-piloted model aircraft disguised as a tiny disk-shaped
UFO ?
Circlevision have informed The Crop Watcher that in their
opinion the Steven Alexander film shows nothing more than a small
bird. This somewhat surprising opinion has apparently been
supported by the Ministry of Defence and the Natural History
Museum, who have both viewed the film.
Further evidence to support "CM" 's claim appeared
in the Hertfordshire Advertiser last April when one Colin
Rogers also claimed to have made a small disk-shaped flying
saucer which was electrically powered. According to the article
Rogers claims that his device was developed by a private company
and was photographed by chance witnesses on June 25th 1977 at
nearby Wheathampstead. Four photographs of the object were taken
and these are reproduced in UFOs, A British Viewpoint by
Jenny Randles and Peter Warrington.
Now could it be that this is the same disk-shaped flying
saucer as the one in the photographs which were presented by the
men in "The Bear" at Devizes? If either of these
stories are true then many celebrated UFO incidents in Britain
involving disk-shaped "craft" may, potentially, be
explicable. Unfortunately our attempts to contact Mr Rogers for a
demonstration of his device have failed, but following further
correspondence "CM" has described the claimed hoaxers
with the following :
"The lighting [in the pub] was not very good but one/ of them was local by his accent. They spoke of others who helped them with the hoaxes. I also gathered that there were people local to Alton Barnes who were 'in the plot'. I would be suspicious of the ones who were making money out of it. The pilot who would 'be in' with everyone was doing very well out of it. There's [also] some connection with the 'Waggon and Horses'. They said it was easy to make a circle while the field was being watched, by putting the 'tools' in the place selected in daylight and creeping in at night. I suspect the hoaxers probably have at least one accomplice among the watchers...."
(letter dated August 23 1994).
So, who can these hoaxers be ? Who is 'the pilot' (Busty
Taylor ?) ? And who in the Alton Barnes area is making money out
of the hoaxes ? If anyone else knows anything at all about this
group of hoaxers or Mr Colin Rogers we will be happy to publish
further information. Our thanks go to "CM" for sending
us this invaluable information.
