During 1995, Koi Alien Photo 02 appeared on the website of the Crop Circle Connector accompanied by a statement: "image by A. J. Samuels".
It subsequently appeared in the "Sightings" magazine, without the true story behind the image being published.
Koi Alien Photo 02 typically appears online without any accompanying text or a statement that the source is unknown.
Koi Alien Photo 02 seems to have been making a come-back in the last few years, having been used to illustrate several different articles on the Internet. For example, it was used by Robert Morningstar on the popular UFO Digest website to accompany an article in September 2006 with a caption stating "Purported Photo of Crashed Saucer Recovery (Source unknown)":
Slightly modified versions of the photo appeared on a few UFO blogs during 2008.
It has been referred to in one online discussion as being "one of the best pictures out there".
In fact, this photo was created by A J Samuels by compositing a:
(a) still of a flying saucer from an episode of The Twilight Zone called 'Death Ship', taken from a book;
(b) an image of an alien from Ray Santilli's "alien autopsy" footage.
AJ Samuels created a webpage, now defunct but available via the Wayback Machine's Internet Archive, on which he expressly stated that "This was my first attempt at image editing while I was playing around with my new copy of Picture Publisher in 1995. It later found its way onto the Crop Circle Connector web site as a joke, and seems to have got one or two people on the Net rather excited".
Sections below:
2. Stories and claims relating to this image
3. The real background to this image
4. Relevant online forum discussions
5. Further references and resources
1. The relevant image
2. Stories and claims relating to this image
Koi Alien Photo 02 typically appears online without any accompanying text or a statement that the source is unknown.
In December 1996 Sightings Magazine published this picture, claiming that it was of a model saucer created by two students in 1967 (as detailed below). The same photo appeared on the front page of that magazine the following month.
Koi Alien Photo 02 seems to have been making a come-back in the last few years, having been used to illustrate several different articles on the Internet. For example, it was used by Robert Morningstar on the popular UFO Digest website to accompany an article in September 2006 with a caption stating "Purported Photo of Crashed Saucer Recovery (Source unknown)":
http://www.ufodigest.com/news/
Slightly modified versions of the photo appeared on a few UFO blogs during 2008.
It has been referred to in one online discussion as being "one of the best pictures out there".
In December 1996 Sightings Magazine published this picture, claiming that it was of a model saucer created by two students in 1967:
The same photo appeared on the front page of that magazine the following month:
Inside that latter issue of "Sightings" magazine was an article entitled 'Stumbling on a Story' which included the following:
When searching for picture material on the internet to compliment an article in Issue 7 of SIGHTINGS we stumbled across an image of a crashed saucer with an alien corpse beside it. The article was entitled Disinformers and Informers and the picture was featured in the magazine on page 19. To our delight we were not the only people to notice how familiar the alien looked to a certain alien corpse featured in the alleged
The internet address is http://www.strw.leidenuniv.nl/~vdmeulen/deeper/Articles/UFOfake.html
.
Getting Rich Quick?
The picture we found with the downed saucer featured an alien corpse lying flat on his back with protruding inflated abdomen and what appears to be a burned right leg, appearing identical to one of the alleged alien corpses shown in the Santilli film. The picture SIGHTINGS located, is supposed to be the work of two
The site is part of Roel van der Meulans web page, entitled Roels Galactic Guide, which is largely about faking UFOs. The actual site was created on
Chasing the Source
We e-mailed Roel and asked him for more details concerning the alien image. He replied,
Dear SIGHTINGS
It was some time ago that I wrote this article, but I think I got the information out of a Dutch book that comes out yearly: "Het Aanzien van <year>".
It is a collection of photos from the newspapers of that year, together with a little bit of text about it. It must have been one from the sixties, or early seventies. I would have to look again (maybe it’s good if I put the source in my article).
The picture has nothing to do with the article, actually. The shape of the saucer reminded me of the shape of the saucers the two guys left behind (the picture in the above mentioned book features the two guys holding a weathered disk of about 1.5 metres diameter).
I only found out later that there was an "alien corpse" lying outside. I picked the image off the web somewhere, I don’t remember where. It must have been one of the countless sites that holds many UFO pictures. I have no idea who manufactured this image.
So for clarity, the two hoaxers only faked a beeping disk.
Sorry if this disappoints you, but there you go.
Regards,
Roel van der Meulen
This left us none the wiser, opening the door for even more speculation.
The individual that composited Koi Alien Photo 02 subsequently created a webpage, now defunct but available via the Wayback Machine's Internet Archive, on which he stated that "This was my first attempt at image editing while I was playing around with my new copy of Picture Publisher in 1995. It later found its way onto the Crop Circle Connector web site as a joke, and seems to have got one or two people on the Net rather excited". AJ Samuels commented upon the "remarkable remarkable and hilarious article entitled 'Stumbling on a Story'" in Sightings magazine which described "the minimal attempts that Sightings had made to determine whether it was genuine". AJ Samuels observed that:
"It seems that Sightings had copied the picture from the web site of Dutch researcher Roel van der Meulen who had used on a page entitled Faking UFO's. Part of this page referred to the 1967 hoax by students Chris Southall and David Harrison, where one night they planted dummy model saucers in a string of public places across the UK. Van der Meulen said that he had used my picture to illustrate this because he thought the shape of the saucer 'reminded me of the shape of the saucers the two guys left behind'. Presumably he had been unable to find the original picture (below [labelled "koi_ap_02l" - which, for the avoidance of any future confusion, relates to the separate hoax by students Chris Southall and David Harrison of the Farnborough Royal Aircraft Establishment during 1967 that is discussed on a separate page])."
Evidently Sightings had been surfing the web looking for free pictures to illustrate their magazine, and had copied this one without bothering to properly read the explanation attached to it. When questioned later by Sightings, van der Meulen claimed that he 'picked the image off the web somewhere, but I don't remember where. It must have been one of the countless sites that holds many UFO pictures. I have no idea who manufactured the image.'
Despite having conducted such a fearless and searching in-depth investigation, Sightings conclude that they are 'none the wiser', and after indulging in some increasingly nebulous speculation as to whether the picture is 'proof' that the Santilli film is a hoax, they give up and appeal to their readers for an explanation.
Readers eagerly searching out the next issue of Sightings to read the sensational explanation of the mystery will have been disappointed to discover that the Sightings mailbox appeared to have been flooded with....just one letter, which was hidden away in the depths of the magazine:-
| Real or Rubbish?
Dear Mr Forsyth, I have been reading through Jonathan Dillon's article on disinformation on pages 16-20 of Volume One, Issue Seven of your magazine and immediately thought that it was April Fool's Day. The bottom picture on page 19 which itself refers to a 1967 hoax by two UK students, also clearly shows Ray Santilli's 'Alien' lying beside it. Although the picture quality is poor, I am convinced that this is the same 'body' as we have all seen in the video footage being dissected. This leads me to believe that either the staff at SIGHTINGS are having a joke at our expense, or this is proof that the video is a hoax as the majority of people believe. I look forward to seeing if sightings are having a bit of fun, or if the question of the Santilli video has been finally been laid to rest, if you excuse the pun. Barry Graney, London |
Sightings sniffily replied that they had 'now investigated the image' (reality: I had sent them an e-mail telling what it actually was) and that they 'now believe the image to be a mock.'"
AJ Samuels' webpage about Koi Alien Photo 02 concluded by observing that Sightings magazine had nonetheless published the photo again in Issue 11 without any explanation.
3. The real background to this image
During 1995, Koi Alien Photo 02 appeared on the website of the Crop Circle Connector accompanied by a statement: "image by A. J. Samuels."
This photo was created by A J Samuels by compositing a:
(a) still of a flying saucer from an episode of The Twilight Zone called 'Death Ship', taken from a book;
(b) an image of an alien from Ray Santilli's "alien autopsy" footage.
The image of the flying disc (without an "alien" body) was taken from the book "Fantastic Worlds" (1978) by Scot Holton and Robert Skotak, published by
Some stills from the the Twilight Zone fourth season episode "Death Ship" are shown below (labelled "Koi_ap_2d" to "Koi_ap_2f")
The "alien" that is superimposed on the photo of the flying saucer is taken from the infamous Ray Santilli alien autopsy footage.
Some images from the Ray Santilli alien autopsy footage are shown below (labelled "koi_ap_02g" and "koi_ap_02h") to enable an easy comparison with Koi Alien Photo 02.
Back in about 1999, Neil Morris created a webpage indicating how this could have been done (prior, it seems, to A J Samuels explaining how he had in fact done it).
A.J. Samuels was active in British crop-circle research in the 1990s. He discussed the creation of the photo in an email exchange at this link with Bill Ralls webmaster of the "Yogi's World" website. A J Samuels stated that he had created the photograph for his own amusement, by manipulating an image of a crashed disc from the "Twilight Zone" using Micrografx Picture Publisher 5.0. The image of the "alien" is recognizable as being from the infamouos Ray Santilli alien autopsy footage.
That exchange includes the following:
"OK, the original photo is a still from an episode of The Twilight Zone called 'Death Ship', broadcast in the early 60's. It came from a book on Sci-Fi TV programmes and films. I did the composite photo originally for my own amusement last year while playing around with some image editing software I had just acquired. I later passed copies on to a few friends and it ended up getting put on the bottom of the CCC web page as a bit of fun."
A.J. Samuels commented that:
(a) "the downside of the type of software he used being widely available is that "we now have to be much more wary of anything that is presented as photographic evidence for phenomena such as UFO's, unfortunately."
(b) "Some people are anxious to believe anything. I wonder why that is".
(c) "I think many people don't realise how easy it is to create this sort of stuff these days unless they've tried it for themselves".
AJ Samuels created a webpage, now defunct but available via the Wayback Machine's Internet Archive, on which he expressly stated that "This was my first attempt at image editing while I was playing around with my new copy of Picture Publisher in 1995. It later found its way onto the Crop Circle Connector web site as a joke, and seems to have got one or two people on the Net rather excited". He included an alternative version of Koi Alien Photo 02 featuring a dalek (below, labelled "koi_ap_02m").
The resurgence in the popularly of Koi Alien Photo 02 may be related to the fact that some of the webpages which revealed its true origins went off-line a few years ago (including AJ Samuel's relevant own webpage).
With the fairly rapid turnover of UFO websites, explanations can disappear while hoaxed images continue to circulate. Sometimes it seems that for every step forward made within ufology, two steps are taken backwards.
4. Relevant online forum discussions
This photo was discussed on the popular AboveTopSecret forum in discussions at :
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread228011/pg1'http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread234603/pg1'
5. Further references and resources
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6. Other Material