If the Roswell Footage arguments werenÆt murky enough the whole controversy recently took a weird swerve when three photographs - obviously contemporary - were received by ourselves, Fortean Times and Union Pictures (who did the Channel 4 documentary). These show what looks like the æalienÆ head being airbrushed and painted. The pictures were accompanied by a compliments slip from æMorgana Productions UK 95Æ. But no message and no explanation. Searching for Morgana through company records and the entertainments industry catalogues turned up nothing.

These images offered three questions:

Were they showing that the film was a fake and that someone was going to prove it? Was someone pressuring the originator of the fake to perhaps give them more money or they would release even more damning photographs?

Were they the product of simple mischief; not exactly a rare commodity in this field? If so, costly mischief it would seem.

Or was a special effects house trying to show that they could re-create the alien from the stills shown in the newspapers over the months (whether or not that alien is genuine or fake itself)? All quite possible and a good advert for a budding special effects house.

I knew immediately I had a major advantage over most of our UFO colleagues. Through my business I had contacts in most of the major special effects companies and I was certain that I would quickly be able to identify who had generated the images. If I couldnÆt I was certain that I knew someone who could.

We set in process CADCAM tests on the pictures to precisely identify the spatial relationships between the facial features and then match them to the new photographs. This would have shown that the two heads were not exactly the same. There were two other aspects to the photographs which were, I was sure, going to ægive the game awayÆ. Following a promise to those who have now come forward and admitted producing the photographs I am not going to specify those tests.

In the end it was, as it often is, pure luck that one of my contacts happened to be in the right place at the right time, said precisely the wrong thing and unravelled the whole mystery. I gather that it was by indicating the tests that we planned to carry out that made them come clean. I should stress that these are not ufologists, they are a team of special effects people for the film industry. The statement that they have sent me for release is reproduced here without editing or censorship and explains their motivations.

Readers will be interested to know that the photographs were also widely circulated to the national news media prior to the BUFORA conference in the hopes that the media would pressure BUFORA into taking a critical line which æMorganaÆ thought we had not done. Ironically this part of the plan did not work as the media were unable to use the pictures because they could not prove the copyright position. On the other hand I am not aware that any of the media gave anyone in the UFO field æthe tip-offÆ which suggests either extreme caution or a certain enjoyment with the mystery on their part as well!

I must stress that because of the calibre of the contacts through which I located these people and my long-term relationship with my contacts I am totally satisfied that this is the true answer to this mystery. The people involved are somewhat embarrassed and even more irritated by the amount of attention they have generated and they have made clear that they would now like to be left in peace having done, as they see it, a service for ufology. I hope that we shall respect that.

One of their mistakes as regards generating publicity was probably to use the word Morgana. There are many players in the UFO business who seem to treat the whole thing like a game of Dungeons and Dragons and bringing in a character from mythology was like a red rag to a bull. However, I am sure that it was appreciated by most people that Morgana was chosen as she was the Nemesis of Merlin.

One of the latest rumours is that Quest have received a letter from people from the film industry saying they know who the hoaxers are, but the Morgana people feel this is unlikely. Although these are well known people in their trade they apparently kept everything under wraps about this particular project. (If Quest would like to work with us on this we will happily help them track down the source of this mischief as it appears to be unnecessarily muddying now-clear waters).

There are still some interesting questions left over. I have had passed to me messages allegedly from Ray Santilli (I have not had a reply from him confirming this) that he knew who the creators of the Morgana pictures were. The first suggestion was RTL TV in Germany (we followed this up and discovered it was not) and then John Lundberg (who readers will know from recent articles in the UFO press) but the Morgana people assure me they do not even know who he is. If Ray Santilli is putting these suggestions out what exactly is it he is worried about? Is he considering that the film he purchased might have been similarly created and that the artists responsible are about to stand up and be counted?

⌐ John Spencer 1995.