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 It's the conspiracy theory that just won't go away: that the U.S. government is, deep in some secret location, keeping the bodies of alien astronauts recovered from the crash of a flying saucer in New Mexico in 1947. 
 
 The "Roswell Incident," named for the small town near where some wreckage was found - a weather balloon, the U.S. military says; a UFO, say those who, well, believe it was a UFO - was back in the news this week when two photographs, claimed to be of preserved alien remains, were presented at a UFO conference in Mexico City. 
 
 The photos, taken on Kodachrome color slide film, have been confirmed as being on film stock from the late 1940s - but that doesn't mean the alien claim is true, experts say. 
 
 What is much more likely, they say, is that the photo is in fact a 1940s image - but of a human child's mummified body. 
 
 As evidence that the alien claim is either a publicity stunt - a documentary film Roswell Slides is in production - or a hoax, scientists noted that attendees at the Mexico City conference who wanted to view the color slides had to cough up $350 for the privilege. 
 
 The skeleton in the photos does have a large head in relation to the rest of the body, but that's a characteristic of any child's body, experts say. 
 
 Mummified children's bodies have been mistaken for aliens before, but even those with strange, deformed skulls have a simple explanation; cranial deformation was widely practiced by many ancient human civilizations. 
 
 Still, many UFO adherents are standing by the claims made in Mexico City. 
 
 "(These photos) show the human race, beyond any doubt, that extra-terrestrial visits are a reality," said Jaime Maussan, a Mexican UFO researcher who hosted the conference. 
 
 "That is why the presentation of two slides, two transparencies, where a being with nonhuman features can be seen, is very important." 
 
 Despite years of research by the U.S. Air Force and other agencies that have found to evidence of aliens - or UFOs - many still hold to their conviction that the government is covering up the existence of a flying saucer or its occupants - or both - in a secret hangar at Area 51 in Nevada. 
 
 The newly released photos are unlikely to change anyone's mind one way or the other, of course. That's just the nature of conspiracies. They're hard to prove; the problem is they're also hard to disprove. 
 
 The photos were said to have been taken by geologist Bernard Ray between 1947 and 1949, and the images were found inside a box that also contained images of Bing Crosby, Clarke Gable and Dwight Eisenhower from before his term as president. The box was located in the attic of a house in Sedona, Ariz. A team of UFO specialists says they are authentic. 
 
 Artwork by Frank Kovalchek | Flickr 
 
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 ⓒ 2018 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. ||||| UFO hunters may have found the evidence they're seeking. At a conference in Mexico City, UFO specialist Jamie Maussan presented never before seen photos of a purported alien body from the 1947 Roswell crash. The crash has long been a mystery, with some suspecting that authorities kept the discovery of an alien a secret from the public. The images, reportedly snapped by Geologist Bernard A. Ray on Kodachrome film, show the remains of an alleged alien found dead in New Mexico. SOUNDBITE: UFO Specialist Jaime Maussan, saying (Spanish) : "These photos show the human race that beyond any doubt, extraterrestrial visits are a reality. That is why the presentation of two slides, two transparencies, where a being with non-human features can be seen, is very important. These photos were dated by experts to a period where the model of the archetype extraterrestrial we know today didn't exist." And that they say, is proof positive that the images couldn't have been doctored. The topic is of course controversial - NASA and the U.S. government have never formally recognized extra terrestrial life on planet Earth. It has taken researchers five years to verify the photos' authenticity. After studying the images, leading UFO specialist Richard Dolan says these are the proof people have been looking for. SOUNDBITE: Richard Dolan, leading researcher and author on UFOs, saying (English): "The analysis of the body or creature that is presented in the image, suggested that this is not a mummy, not a human, not a mammal and not a model, which would require a highly sophisticated detailed understanding of comparative anatomy among various species." Real, not real ... you to decide. And if you do find yourself looking over your shoulder ... we can't say we blame you. ||||| Two photographs of a "dead alien" were unveiled at a big money event last night - and immediately dismissed as fake. 
 
 A series of 'UFOlogists' appeared at the Be Witness meeting last night to reveal images of an extraterrestrial who supposedly crashed to Earth during the infamous Roswell incident in 1947. 
 
 The images were found by former journalist Adam Dew, who has taken steps to verify the pair of alien snaps and said Kodak experts had dated the film to 1947. 
 
 Alien or mummy? A screenshot of the slide, which has not been released 
 
 The rest of the world has not had the chance to test the rigour of his methods, because high resolution images of the alien are not yet available. 
 
 They are likely to be sold through his production company Dew Media alongside a documentary about the discovery of the slides. 
 
 The photos were supposedly found in Arizona, hidden in a collection of snaps owned by oil geologist Bernard Ray and his wife Hilda Ray, who have both died. 
 
 Nick Pope, a researcher who headed up a UFO investigation wing at the UK Ministry of Defence, told Mirror Online he was "underwhelmed". 
 
 "It could be a model, or it could simply be a fake image, dressed up to look like a Forties slide," he said. 
 
 "The motivations for hoaxing are complex. Some hoaxes are money-making scams, but sometimes it's just a desire to say 'we fooled the world'. 
 
 "I can understand why the UFO community is disappointed and conspiracy theorists are probably already claiming the whole thing was a government plot, designed to discredit the subject and 
 
 make it look ridiculous." 
 
 After the photographs were revealed, UFO spotters immediately took to Twitter to share screenshots of the snaps using the hashtag "#BeDisappointed". 
 
 #UFOLOGY we should all pay penance and wear tinfoil hats for the day...#Roswellslides WTF!!!....haven't we learnt anything yet? — Puxley (@Holographic_Me) May 6, 2015 
 
 #roswellslides well it's certainly succeeded in making me want to move on from all the ufo ET stuff! I'm now a nonbeliever! Nice one! — philf (@TheDubPunk) May 6, 2015 
 
 Some compared the images to previous photos of Egyptian mummies from the Smithsonian. 
 
 #roswellslides A photo a of a child mummy, an #epicfail NOT a smoking gun. Shame on ufologists that was on THIS. pic.twitter.com/ygVi49zDtP — cristian contini (@cristiancontini) May 6, 2015 
 
 Critics have pointed out a film showing an 'autopsy' of an alien found at Roswell was released exactly 20 years before the Be Witness event yesterday. 
 
 This older film (pictured below) was discovered by British music producer Ray Santilly. Although it was dismissed as fake, it reportedly earned him a sizeable amount of money. 
 
 There are several other connections between the Santilly film and the release of the Roswell photos, leading some to claim the new slides are a "carefully prepared" stunt. 
 
 For instance, the alien in the Santilly video was nicknamed Hilda - the same name as the woman who supposedly owned the new Roswell Slides. 
 
 This image of an alien autopsy didn't fool many people 
 
 The big reveal took place in a massive auditorium packed with thousands of eager UFO fans. 
 
 Although there was a live stream available, viewers had to fork out $20 if they wanted to watch it. 
 
 British skygazers were at a particular disadvantage, because the event started at 11.30pm and went on until dawn, with many speakers talking in Spanish. 
 
 Mirror Online spoke to the former astronaut Edgar Mitchell, the sixth man to land on the moon and an outspoken believer in extraterrestrial visitations. 
 
 The 84-year-old appeared at Be Witness via a Skype link and insisted the images showed the remains of an alien being. 
 
 "These images show a type of alien known as a little grey," he told us. 
 
 "However, we have no way of knowing if it was the creature which creatures from the Roswell incident." 
 
 Getty Major Jesse Marcel with debris found 75 miles north west of Roswell, NM, in June 1947 
 
 Gary Heseltine, a former policeman who is now editor of UFO Truth Magazine, also insisted the photos were real. 
 
 "I know many of the people who were involved," he told Mirror Online. 
 
 "They wouldn't risk their reputation by appearing at this event if the photos weren't genuine. 
 
 "From my background as a policeman, I know what evidence is. These were compelling images of a being which was not human." 
 
 We asked organisers if the event was a money-making venture rather than a genuine revelation proving the existence of alien life. 
 
 Jaime Maussan, the journalist who organised the unveiling, replied: "The forensics experts explained in full yesterday why this is [an alien]. 
 
 "We also presented the analysis from photography experts stating that the picture is real and from the late 1940s. 
 
 "I lost about $100 thousand in the event, even though we had six thousand people in the auditorium and a few thousand watching on the Internet. 
 
 "I never did it for money, I knew I was going to lose cash even before started the organisation of the event, but I didn't care. 
 
 "They are wrong all the way." ||||| Proponents of theories and ideologies are always looking for that knockout punch – the smoking-gun evidence that proves their beliefs in a single stroke. Most theories are too complex to be established by a single piece of evidence, and require multiple independent lines of evidence to establish them. But there are often cases in which a single solid piece of evidence can push a theory over the line to general acceptance. 
 
 For many pseudosciences the lack of such smoking-gun evidence calls the claims into serious question. There are no artifacts from Atlantis. There is no bigfoot corpse or live specimen. And there are no crashed alien spaceships or, you know – aliens. Incidentally this is not the case for truly paranormal claims, like ghosts, because by being “paranormal” they would require a large set of rigorous evidence to establish a new phenomenon. But one actual bigfoot would do it. 
 
 So it is no surprise that from time to time we hear claims that “final proof” has finally come to light of one pseudoscientific claim or another. Just such a claim is now circulating regarding an FBI document from 1950 – a report regarding the recovery of three “flying saucers” in New Mexico. Here is the full text of the document, dated March 22, 1950: 
 
 
 
 “The following information was furnished to SA (redacted) by (redacted).”An investigator for the Air Forces stated that three so-called flying saucers had been recovered in New Mexico. They were described as being circular in shape with raised centers, approximately 50 feet in diameter. Each one was occupied by three bodies of human shape but only 3 feet tall, dressed in metallic cloth of a very fine texture. Each body was bandaged in a manner similar to the blackout suits used by speed flyers and test pilots. “No further evaluation was attempted by SA (redacted) concerning the above.” 
 
 This is very provocative. To someone predisposed to believe in the Roswell incident and the whole government cover-up of recovered aliens, this might seem light smoking-gun evidence. But let’s break it down a bit. 
 
 The memo comes from the FBI vault (which seems legitimate, since only the government can have a .gov URL) and is made available through a freedom of information (FOI) request. Guy Hottel is described as in charge of the Washington field office. The memo seems like the routine reporting up the chain of information coming into the office. I searched on “Guy Hottel” on the vault site, but no other relevant documents came up. 
 
 The date of the memo places it three years after the Roswell incident in 1947. The Daily Mail reproduced the document claiming it as “proof” of aliens at Roswell (although Roswell is not mentioned by name in the memo). They also reproduced another document from the FBI, this one from 1947 which does reference Roswell, claiming that the sighting of a: 
 
 “disc is hexagonal in shape and was suspended from a balloon by cable.” 
 
 The memo author concluded that the object was a high altitude weather balloon, which fits with the current explanation that the crash at Roswell was in fact a spy balloon from Project Mogul. 
 
 The new memo, from three years later, must therefore refer to a separate incident. If the report can be believed, there were then three separate crashes of flying saucers all in the New Mexico area. Maybe the aliens were having problems with drunk flyers at the time. These alleged three further crashes did not appear to be witnessed, and once again there is no physical evidence to back up these claims. 
 
 Let’s also be clear about what the memo is – it’s hearsay. It is not a report from the investigator himself, and it contains scant details. It is little more than a rumor. The name of the informant was redacted, but it does not sound like the informant is the investigator himself. This memo seems like nothing more than the background noise of reports that any intelligence agency receives. 
 
 The body of the report is also very telling. The flying saucers are described as looking exactly like flying saucers looked from 1950s science fiction. This is the ship from Forbidden Planet. The aliens themselves are clothed in shimmering metallic fabric – again, right out of contemporary science fiction. This is three years after Roswell, and clearly the mythology had already evolved a bit. There was a rash of “flying saucer” reports at that time, and it’s no surprise that intelligence agencies were paying attention (especially in light of the growing cold war with the Soviet Union). 
 
 The final line of the report is also very telling – the SA did not feel that any further investigation was required. It certainly seems as if they did not take the report very seriously. This is the kind of report that we would expect to emerge from the pop culture of flying saucer fascination in 1950. It’s not the kind of report we would expect if there were a serious investigation into real alien encounters and cover-ups by the government. One might argue that the FBI were out of the loop (at least at the level of the Washington Field office), but that also would mean that this memo does not emerge from any privileged information or access and again is just rumor. 
 
 No matter how you slice it, this memo is nothing but rumor being passed routinely up the chain, without any indication that it was taken seriously. It reflects the popular culture of the time, and provides no real evidence or insight. This is not the smoking-gun that UFO enthusiasts have been hoping for. ||||| A declassified document from 1949 tells how three men, on patrols miles apart, each reported seeing a UFO break up over mountains north of Salt Lake City. 
 
 Their extraordinary accounts were sent to Edgar Hoover, the director of the FBI, in a memo titled "Flying Discs". 
 
 The file said that a policeman, a highway patrolman and an army guard all "saw a silver coloured object high up approaching the mountains at Sardine Canyon" that "appeared to explode in a rash of fire." 
 
 "Several residents [reported] seeing what appeared to be two aerial explosions, followed by falling object," it said. 
 
 The file is one of thousands of previously unreleased files that the FBI has made public in a new online resource called The Vault . 
 
 Among them is a 1950 statement from special agent Guy Hottel, which seems to provide evidence for the theory that aliens landed at Roswell, New Mexico. 
 
 In the memo, Agent Hottel said that "three so-called flying saucers had been recovered in New Mexico". 
 
 He wrote that the flying saucers were "described as being circular in shape with raised centers, approximately 50 feet in diameter." 
 
 In a statement that is reminiscent of the hit 1990s TV programme The X-Files, he went on to describe the alien life forms inside the UFOs. 
 
 "Each one was occupied by three bodies of human shape but only 3 feet tall," he wrote. 
 
 The bodies were "dressed in a metallic cloth of a very fine texture. Each body was bandaged in a manner similar to the blackout suits used by speed flyers and test pilots." 
 
 Agent Hottel suggested that the UFOs had crashed in New Mexico because high-powered government radar had interfered with their operating systems. 
 
 The release of the files are likely to intensify the claims of conspiracy theorists who believe the US government covered up alien landings. 
 
 Roswell became infamous after reports that a flying saucer had crashed in the desert nearby in 1947. 
 
 The bodies of aliens were said to have been recovered by the military.
– UFO enthusiasts last week got a gander of an alien allegedly recovered from Roswell—oversized head and all—but experts say the evidence likely originated on planet Earth, Tech Times reports. Attendees at a UFO conference in Mexico City paid $350 for the chance to see an old Kodachrome color slide said to capture an alien that crashed in New Mexico in 1947 (UFO lovers call it the "Roswell Incident"). A journalist apparently dated the film stock to the 1940s, Discovery reports, saying it was recovered in Arizona from an oil geologist's photo collection. The slide shows a small figure with a big head in a display case; Discovery argues that the skeleton belonged to a child (with typically oversized head) or the body of a mummified child with a deformed head. Such bodies have been turning up for years in the Americas and identified as extraterrestrials, Discovery reported last year. What's more, no eyewitness at Roswell in 1947 described aliens or even a flying saucer; the first one there talked about something "made up of rubber strips, tinfoil, a rather tough paper and sticks" (the US Air Force put it down to air balloons and radar detectors that crashed there). Yet UFO proponents at the Mexico City event stood firm: "Analysis of the body ... suggested this is not a mummy and not a human, not a mammal and not a model," says enthusiast Richard Dolan, Reuters reports. A British defense official was less enthused, telling the Mirror that "it could be a model, or it could simply be a fake image, dressed up to look like a Forties slide." (Read about Air Force UFO files now available online.)