Shepherd Johnson finds documents that finish the Roswell Slides

Shepherd Johnson contacted me on May 12, and the conversation centered on finding documentation on the mummified child's body depicted in the "Roswell Slides." After finding that National Park Service had both documents and photographs, Shepherd decided to file a Freedom of Information Act request for the records.

He filed his FOIA May 13, and there's a record of it online. Shepherd Johnson's request for this is on the NPS FOIA log on page 47. There's no listing for another such request.
http://www.nps.gov/aboutus/foia/upload/MAY-2015.pdf

As a result of this FOIA, a 186 page document was released, which details the discovery of the mummified child, it's display and the transfer between different museums. Oh yes, there are a few photographs.

http://www.nps.gov/aboutus/foia/upload/MEVE_ChildMummyDocs_ForWeb.pdf

With the information Shepherd Johnson's FOIA request produced, José Antonio Caravaca composed this finale to the Slides saga.

ROSWELL SLIDES: OFFICIAL CONFIRMATION. It's a mummy

DIAPOSITIVAS DE ROSWELL: CONFIRMACIÓN OFICIAL. ES UNA MOMIA
(original article in Spanish) by José Antonio Caravaca 

Following the publication of a new picture of the Mesa Verde mummy,  obtained by the Mexican Forensic Jorge Peredo, the events surrounding Roswell slides have rushed towards a final clarification. If the evidence presented by Peredo no longer represented, in itself, a strong and convincing evidence that the body of the slide was not an alien being, but the mummy of an Indian Child, researcher Shepherd Johnson  has found a US "National Park Service" document that confirms beyond reasonable doubt the thesis of the mummy. 

Discovered by Jorge Peredo image in Picasa web album.

The file, 186 pages, collected in great detail the excavations and studies Montezuma Castle (New Mexico) and the discovery of the mummy of a child (73, 6 cm). A photograph in black and white appears, unfortunately famous mummy, which was taken in 1939 during archaeological surveys (p. 176) in the same document. The body was discovered in 1896 in the castle ruins by Mr. SL Palmer, as it appeared on the plate slides read by our international research group Roswell Slides Research Group  (RSRG).  Just a note discovered in the wake of our sensational find, and originally published in "MESA VERDE NOTES" in September 1938 (Volume VIII, Number 1) was collected as the son of the discoverer of the mummy returned the body to the US government: "A splendid mummy was received by the Museum Park recently when Mr. SL Palmer Jr. of San Francisco returned one his father had taken out of the ruins in 1894. The mummy is that of a child of two years and is in a excellent condition. At the time of burial of the body was dressed in a cotton shirt over three small cotton blankets. These fragments are still on the mummy "...

Interior Department document of the United States that collects all the information about the mummy found in Montezuma Castle.

Detail of the mummy

Body image of the "Roswell slides"

Place of discovery of the mummy in 1896.

Burial detail with mummy.

CASE CLOSED .

The image contained in the documents Shepherd requested clearly shows that all the fantastic claims of those involved in the investigation of so-called "Roswell Slides," which aimed to provide final evidence of  the Roswell UFO crash, showing this body as if one of the alien pilots secretly recovered by the US military, has been plagued by mistakes, follies and misunderstandings large and of a deep caliber. From the beginning the investigation undertaken by Tom Carey, Don Schmitt, Anthony Bragalia and finally, Jaime Maussan, have proven ineffective and clearly evidence of a vast and almost endless incompetence worthy of study ...

Rest in peace ...

Special thanks to all my friends and colleagues at Roswell Slides Research Group:  
Curt Collins (USA), Gilles Fernandez (France), Nab Lator (France), Isaac Koi (Great Britain), Roger Glassel (Sweden), Paul Kimball (Canada) Tim Printy (USA), Tim Hebert (USA), Lance Moody (USA), S. Miles Lewis (USA), Jeff Ritzmann (USA) and Chris Rutkowski (Canada). We have also enlisted the help of other scholars as Aaron J, Gulyas, Irna France, Fin Handley and Alejandro Espino. Including the collaboration of the researcher Nick Redfern.

JOSE ANTONIO Carav @ CA

Prohibited total or partial reproduction of the material contained in this blog without permission of the author. Owned by Jose Antonio Caravaca.




UPDATE:

The Eisenhower Connection

Slide of General Dwight D. Eisenhower

One of the Roswell Slides story’s key “data points” had been the Rays’ friendship with the Eisenhowers. Supposedly, Hilda Blair Ray was good friends with Mamie Eisenhower, the wife of General Dwight D. Eisenhower (who became elected President of the USA in 1953). In the narrative of the Slides, that alleged friendship somehow allowed the Rays access to a secret restricted facility where the US Government was storing the remains of a crash victim from the 1947 UFO crash at Roswell, New Mexico. Among the Ray's slide collection there were pictures of celebrities, and there were two of General Eisenhower from a WW II victory celebration train tour stop in Kansas in 1946. There were no photos in the Rays' collection picturing them with the Eisenhowers.

Shepherd Johnson sent an inquiry to the Eisenhower Presidential Library asking, "The individual who now owns the slides is claiming that the people who took the slides were Bernard and Hilda Ray of Midland, Texas and that the Rays were friends of President Eisenhower. Have you ever come across the names Bernard and Hilda Ray in any of President Eisenhower's archival material?"

On May 20, 2015, he received a reply from the Eisenhower Presidential Library stating, “We have not found any mention of the Rays in either the papers of Dwight or Mamie Eisenhower. It is does not appear that the couples knew each other.” Once again, the promoters of the Roswell Slides had it all wrong.

The response from the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library in full:

"Dear Mr. Johnson,
Thank you for your inquiry as to whether the Eisenhowers were friends with Bernard and Hilda Ray of Midland, Texas. We have not found any mention of the Rays in either the papers of Dwight or Mamie Eisenhower. It is does not appear that the couples knew each other.

Dwight Eisenhower did have a friend named John A. McDermott, who lived in Midland, Texas and was in the oil business. We do not know of any evidence that Eisenhower ever visited Midland. However, it is not necessarily possible to rule out a train stop. Also, we do not have much information about the Eisenhower's day-by-day activities prior to the early 1950s.

As for the photograph, our Audio/Visual archivist says it is likely a post-war one, perhaps a homecoming welcome photograph of some sort. She can not identify the location and circumstances as it is not from our photograph collection. The man and woman standing with the General and Mamie are his brother, Milton, and his wife, Helen.

Again, thank you for contacting us and if we can be of any further assistance please contact me again.

Sincerely,

Kevin Bailey
Reference Archivist
Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library
Abilene, Kansas"

The Smoking Gun: RIP to the Roswell Slides

I'm trying to get out of the Roswell Slides business, but as long as the promoters keep pushing the false claims and making accusations there's some unfinished business.

Most of it is silly, but there are a few points to clear up.

The placard was handwritten in cursive script, how can it deblur into text? 

Tom Carey on the placard from the March 22, 2015 Contacto show with Jaime Maussan: 

“It’s handwritten, it's not typed like it would be in a museum; you know, a museum would have a professional display placard identifying what it is that’s there in the background behind it. This is hand written as though it was written- with just- put together fairly quickly, perhaps for a limited viewing. It's not in the museum, it’s in a indoor location- where we don't know, but it's obviously to us, for a limited viewing, that’s temporary construction.And on the plaque, there is writing, and we have been actively researching, trying to quote unquote “read” what's on the placard for three years and we’ve only recently come into contact with some experts in this sort of thing. We tried reading it on her own, we’ve used several outside people, some of whom, one of whom had done some work on the famous Ramey memo from General Ramey in 1947 and we are now able to read a few of the words, based on what the experts are telling us, and the debunkers who have been debunking this are going to be disappointed, I can tell you that."

Well, that's a curious claim, but let's focus on the "handwriting" for now.

Dr. David Rudiak was one of the experts recruited by Carey and Schmitt to decipher the placard. After Nab Lator deblurred the placard and the RSRG published the results, Rudiak was one of many who was able to duplicate the process:

  "...the motion blur, which was 'boomerang-shaped', jerked horizontally right then diagonally upward to the right (or vice versa). This probably resulted in the printed text having a hand-written script-like appearance.

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=11558306&postID=8159526343263081173 

Dr. David Rudiak on SmartDeblur of the placard

Why did previous attempts fail but the RSRG and others succeed? 

David Rudiak (in the same statement from above) explains:  

“I think the failure to deblur the image previously had nothing to do with the scans provided and had everything to do with the blur being complex in nature (both simple focus and two directions of motion blur), which most deblurring software cannot handle (at least the deblurring software I tried). E.g., to handle motion blur, most packages require you hand-set the direction of blur, which wasn't known here, plus having two directions to deal with. 
It might have helped had we been provided the high resolution scans of the entire slide, which showed the nature of the motion blur.”
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=11558306&postID=8159526343263081173 

A demonstration by Fin Handley of the "handwriting" to text.

The New News: Laying the story to rest

Below are two stories by RSRG team member S. Miles Lewis, first an excellent history of the whole Slides story (well, except for the missing pieces that still remain hidden).

The (NOT) Roswell Slides Saga…

And finally, the Smoking Gun

The second story is new and important. It covers the recent discovery of an independent photo of the child mummy, one photographed in 1956 at the Montezuma Castle museum in Arizona.
Believe it or not, it's another slide.

Breaking News on the (NOT) Roswell “Alien” Slides

Wait, what about all the claims of anomalies in the body in the photos?

First, I'd note that the people making these claims have not examined the body, not even the slides themselves, only digital copies. The best evidence presented for the case that the photos depict an alien, are the same pictures that include details of the museum where it was displayed, and the label that was placed on the body by people who actually saw and handled the body.  They can be considered the real experts, and they were confident enough put their testimony in writing:

"MUMMIFIED BODY OF TWO YEAR OLD BOY"

Nab Lator's Analysis of the “Roswell Slides” (FAQ)

I wanted to call attention to the fact that Nab Lator of the RSRG created an excellent
analysis of the “Roswell Slides,” that deals with the frequently asked questions and issues discussed in relation to them.

Analysis of the “Roswell Slides” (FAQ)

The section dealing with Prof. Miguel Botella, anthropologist, Director of the Physical Anthropology Lab, University of Granada, Spain is particularly interesting,  and it refutes the lingering claims by Jaime Maussan that the mummified child is an alien from a UFO crash at Roswell.

Nabbed: Analysis of the “Roswell Slides” (FAQ)

The Roswell Slides: the Anthropologist from Canada

A lot of questions about the Roswell Slides fiasco remain, but no one is talking except Jaime Maussan. To get some answers of how it all came together, we have to start examining the statements made by the players before the event.

Tom Carey had been waiting for a "smoking gun" on the Roswell case for decades. Describing when he first saw the image in the slides, he said, "a chill ran down my spine..." and he knew it was genuine. On March 1, 2015, Tercer Milenio TV aired the program "Contacto Con Jaime Maussan." In the second hour of the show,  Tom Carey joined the program via a Skype interview to promote BeWitness and talk about the Roswell Slides.

Tom Carey on the man from Toronto

Tom Carey on Contacto

"I contacted one of my fellow graduate students when I was in the University of Toronto years ago, and I confess he was, and remains, a friend of mine, but he will tell me the truth. I respect his opinion more than anyone on anything relating to Anthropology. He’s that bright of a fellow, he still is. So, I sent him a copy of this fuzzy image that’s going around I did not send him one of the originals. I sent him the one that’s going around that someone has enhanced up.  So, I had him look at it.

Leaked "enhanced up" image
By Narrenschiffer 

I didn’t tell him what it was, I told him, ‘look at this, and you tell me what you think it is. Well, most Anthropologists that we talked to, that will talk to us, most of them run away, as you know, they do not want to get involved in anything related to UFOs or Roswell, they run away as fast as they can, but we do have a number of them who did go on the record.

But, my friend up in Toronto, he looked at this, and he did ask me a few questions about it, when it was taken, where it was, which we don’t know exactly where it was taken. And he went a step further. Most of the Anthropologists will tell us what it is not. It’s not a non-human primate, it’s not a child, it’s not a human child, it’s not a deformed child, stuff like that. Well, my friend up in Toronto went a step further. His final conclusion was-  'I said, what is your final conclusion?' And he emailed me back, he said, “This critter (that’s what he called it) the critter, this being is not from this planet. That was his conclusion.” He wouldn’t tell me what it is, he just said, whatever it is, it’s not from this planet. So, I received this yesterday, and I thanked him for his honest opinion.”

It seems strange that Carey would send the leaked slide image for analysis, as it has been widely disparaged by the slides promoters. Jaime Maussan said of it, 

"It is a picture that they took and with which they wanted to base all the research. It is a figure that is not very clear , it’s something they stretched , then modified and adjusted . I say it is more like the canary Tweety from the cartoons, the one who is always against the cat and well ... it looks more like Tweety than reality."

We now know that the former Toronto classmate that Carey was describing is Richard Doble. As the only English speaking expert featured in BeWitness, a lot of attention was focused on Doble's opinion. So far, nothing has been presented to show if he was allowed to see the original images of the slides before offering his dramatic conclusions.

"It's nothing like us, we can see that his feet, his legs appear to be a reptile, could have evolved from something like a gecko..." Richard Doble

Richard Doble

Richard Doble presented video analysis of the alien in BeWitness.

Richard Doble's written report



Update: Richard Doble responds to exposure of the placard revealing the body to be a mummy. 

Jaime Maussan's interview with "anthropologist" Richard Doble

In Search of the Roswell Slides Mummy

There's a huge pile of study material that was prepared in the RSRG examination of the Roswell Slides, but much of it will never be used due to the quick turn of events. Still, it's interesting for some to see how the puzzle pieces were fit together, so here's a peek at some of my files on the search. 

Files from the Crypt

The Leaked Slide

One file that was shared by members of RSRG, the Roswell Slides Research Group, was the best collection of the leaked slide images. It included some composites and 3 versions of the slide by Narrenschiffer, Frank Warren and Nab Lator. This was also used to share with other researchers or those offering professional opinions, such as Dr. Hunt.

Nab Lator's version of the leaked slide.

This was hosted at the formerly top-secret page:
Unidentified Child's Mummy

Trees, as well as pixels, were sacrificed in this investigation.

The Search for the Body

 Early on, a good match for the mummy was located. When we first started looking at mummies in the precursor to RSRG, on Feb. 11, Trained Observer posted "Here is one showing a child mummy on fabric with a placard." Later the same morning, Roger Glassel, "I found a PDF which states that before 1958 the child mummy was (designated specimen 2397) at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia, and later moved to the National Museum of Natural History." That was the article by Dr. David Hunt, whom he later contacted for a preliminary opinion.

A Child's Mummy by David Hunt AnthroNotes Volume 33 No. Spring 2012

Although the mummy was not an exact match for the child in the slides, the size, position, and proportions and condition of the body were nearly identical to it. Some members of our group were convinced it was a match, and that the differences came from the angle and lighting in the photograph, or differences in the positioning of the severed head.

Boy mummy from Thebes on display at the 

National Museum of Natural History. 

Dr. Hunt scanning 2397.

A failed composite attempting to recreate the scene. 

Other comparisons were made to the skeletons of children, but again, the angle of the source photo made this difficult, not to mention the low quality of the leaked slide. 

The detached skull seemed to be placed on the chest, making the torso appear shorter.

This comparison demonstrates how closely the mummy matched different child skeletons. 

This composite took elements from different pictures in an attempt to reconstruct the entire body's display as well as the surrounding room.

Similar collections were assembled of various mummies, side-show exhibits, and also things like museum cases and shelving.

The Smoking Gun

Although there was little doubt as to the size and age of the body, efforts to locate the particular mummy were unsuccessful, even after the big reveal of the clearer photographs at the show. Most people who looked objectively at the images agreed that they depicted a mummy, but it seemed unless the body was identified, doubt would always remain. 

From BeWitness

The new images from Be Witness provided more detail, but no immediate clues, and definitively ruled out our leading suspect 2397. Tim Hebert began a detailed examination of the body in the photos, but those studies were sidelined by the arrival of the  placard picture which yielded the solution to the mystery of the mummy slides. By the time you read this, period museum photos of the mummy on display will probably have been located and published.

Illustration by Nippa Downey

Thus endeth...

Of course, not everyone accepted the proof, or took the news well.

Twitter @jaimemaussan1

ID Confirmed: the Roswell Slides Mummy of Mesa Verde

Roger Glassel, with help from other cooperating researchers has provided details proving that the location where the "Roswell Slides" mummy was photographed.

The Boy mummy described.

In a previous article here, The Placard of the Roswell Slides: The Final Curtain, it was shown that the placard on the body shown in "Roswell Slides" had been read, and confirmed the identity of it as a mummy in a museum. Further information has been collected  and published at the Roswell Slides Research Group site: The Child Identified

Placard revealed by Nab Lator using SmartDeblur

Illustration by Nippa Downey

 Details of the Body

Further information and documentation continues to be found, and it has been proven that the mummy was a young child that was displayed at the Mesa Verde Museum. Specific details present in the photograph are described.

Region III Quarterly Volume 2 - No. 1   January, 1940

HUMAN PRUNES By Don Watson,

Park Naturalist, Mesa Verde National Park.

http://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/region_111/vol2-1c.htm

The text refers to specific characteristics that match the body presented in the "Roswell Slides"

"Another excellent mummy in the Mesa Verde Museum is that of a small boy of perhaps two or three. X-rays of the teeth have not been taken so the exact age is uncertain. The body is well mummified, but small patches of skin are missing and the lower part of the right leg has disappeared. The skin has lost all of its former color and is an uninteresting dull gray shade. Part of a small slip-over cotton shirt still hangs around the shoulders. Several pieces of cotton in which the body was wrapped are well preserved. This mummy is not popular with visitors. It has such a negative personality that it has never been named. Even though it is well preserved, it fails to click. The spark is not there; that certain something is missing."

 The placard has been read, and matched to historical documents that precisely describe it. The location is known, and no real mystery remains about it.

Mesa Verde Notes September 1938 Volume VIII, Number 1.

---

A further matching detail on the location

Located by Roger Glassel of RSRG.

A bench seen in behind the museum case seems to match that in this photograph of  the Chapin Mesa Archeological Museum at Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado. http://npshistory.com/nature_notes/meve/vol8-1f.htm

Now that the location is known,many other details are also being matched. The placard font and distinctive border.

Chapin Mesa Archeological Museum 
Thanks to Shepherd Johnson

For further facts on this story, see the Roswell Slides Research Group.