Subject: Klass Says Dennis' Roswell Story Flawed 1/2 Date: 21 Jan 1995 11:13:29 +1100 Organization: werple public-access unix, Melbourne Lines: 139 Message-ID: <3fpjj9$qne@werple.mira.net.au> NNTP-Posting-Host: werple.mira.net.au Summary: Phil Klass casts doubts on Glenn Dennis >From _Skeptics' UFO Newsletter_ by Philip J. Klass. #31, Jan, 1995 404 "N" Street, SW, Washington DC 20024 [SIX ISSUES $15 for US/CANADA, OVERSEAS AIR MAIL IS $20/YEAR] ================================================================== _Mortician's Tale of Roswell Nurse, ET Bodies is Seriously Flawed_ The story told by former mortician _Glenn Dennis_, of ET bodies brought to the Roswell Army Air Field in early July 1947, is the _only_ Roswell ET-bodies tale which is endorsed by _ALL_ prominent pro-UFO Roswell crashed-saucer researchers. YET DENNIS' TALE IS RIDDLED WITH FLAWS AND INCONSISTENCIES. Karl Pflock,_ whose "Roswell In Perspective" report discredits two of Randle/Schmitt's key ET-bodies "witnesses," Ragsdale and Kaufmann, endorses Dennis' tale. The same is true of Randle/Schmitt, whose books completely discredited _Gerald F. Anderson_, a star ET-bodies "witness" of _Stanton Friedman_ and _Don Berliner_. Friedman/Berliner also endorse Dennis' tale. In July of 1947, the 22-year-old Dennis was employed by the Ballard Funeral Home, which was under contract to provide mortuary service to the Roswell Army Air Field (RAAF) as well as ambulance service from the city to the base. Although Dennis is a long-time good friend of _Walter Haut_ -- the young officer at RAAF who wrote and released the "Flying Disk Recovered" press release on July 8, 1947 which "launched" the Roswell incident -- _Haut_ told SUN that Dennis had never mentioned the ET-bodies incident until late 1988 or early 1989. Kevin Randle informed _SUN_ that he first learned about Dennis from Haut in April 1989. It is not known when Stanton Friedman learned first about Dennis. But when Friedman visited Roswell in early August 1989 for filming of an "Unsolved Mysteries" TV show on the Roswell Incident, an interview was arranged. Dennis' good friend _Robert Shirkey_ drove Friedman to Lincoln, N.M. to meet with Dennis and sat in on the tape-recorded interview. Shirkey, who was stationed at RAAF in 1947, claims to have seen the crash debris. The first public -- if limited -- disclosure of Dennis' tale came in November, 1989 when Las Vegas TV station KLAS aired a series titled "UFOs: The Best Evidence," produced by _George Knapp_. Knapp had visited Roswell in August and interviewed Shirkey. In the TV show, Knapp introduced Shirkey as follows: "Shirkey was the officer who ordered up the B-29 that transported the strange debris....Shirkey also has knowledge of _alien bodies_. The information is from a close friend who ran the town funeral parlor in the 40s. _It has never been made public until now_." Shirkey said he was asked [by Dennis] "Did you see the sketches in the paper of the humanoids or the bodies? [The June 8, 1987 Roswell _Daily Record_ carried a front-page story on UFOs with two sketches of traditional-looking ETs.] I said yes. He said, well, I can tell you that's what they looked like. The funeral parlor supplied the caskets for the Air Force to use because we had the contract. And they came in and took all the baby-size or youth-size caskets we had." (_But according to Dennis' later accounts, RAAF never came to obtain any caskets, large or small_.) _RANDLE/SCHMITT FIRST TO PUBLISH MORTICIAN'S NURSE'S TALE_ The first detailed account of the Dennis tale in which he was identified by name appeared in the first Randle/Schmitt book, "UFO Crash At Roswell," published in mid-1991. When _SUN_ interviewed Dennis in Roswell on Dec. 9, 1991, we began by reading the R/S account from their book, to verify its accuracy. Periodically Dennis would interrupt to challenge the accuracy of the R/S version. _Later, when SUN discussed these inaccuracies with Randle, he explained that by the time R/S first interviewed Dennis in late 1990, their book manuscript had been sent to the publisher and so their version was based largely on a transcript of Friedman's August 1989 interview with Dennis which they had hastily updated_. For example, R/S reported [p. 91-92] that shortly after lunch, Dennis received telephone inquiries from "doctor's at the base...asking questions about preservation techniques....The mortician was told by the military doctors that the bodies had been out on the prairie for a couple of days, maybe a week....According to the mortician, he was told there were three fatalities. Two of them had been mangled in the crash but the other was in fairly good shape. The officers at the base wanted to know if they could get ALL THREE INTO A SINGLE HERMETICALLY SEALED CASKET." (Emphasis added). Dennis offered a significantly different version to _SUN_: He said there had been no mention of any fatalities and the caller -- the base mortuary officer -- asked what was the _smallest_ sealed casket that Ballard had and how many were in stock. "Then, about 30 minutes later, they called back and wanted to know what our embalming procedures would do to remains that had been laying out in the elements. Would it change the blood content? Would it change the tissue? Would it change the stomach contents? CURIOUS QUESTIONS. IF RAAF HAD ET BODIES, EMBALMING FLUID WOULD BE INJECTED ONLY IF THE ETs WERE SOON TO BE BURIED. HOWEVER, IF AN AUTOPSY WAS PLANNED, EMBALMING FOR BURIAL WOULD BE DONE AFTERWARDS. Because Dennis found so many errors in the R/S #1 account, _SUN_ will here shift to highlights of Dennis' own version, given before a video camera and incorporated in the video "Recollections of Roswell II," produced by the Fund For UFO Research. (FUFOR). According to Dennis, shortly after the last inquiry from RAAF, he received a call to bring a slightly injured airman to the base hospital. After taking the airman to the infirmary, Dennis said there was, "one particular nurse that I was pretty well acquainted with and I wanted to see if she was there and buy her a coke....As I started back to see her her...she came out of one of the examining rooms....She said: 'What are you doing here and how did you get in here?' She said: 'My gosh, get out of here as soon as possible, you're gonna get in a lot of trouble.'" When Dennis sought an explanation, the nurse quickly returned to the room which was guarded by a captain who asked Dennis to identify himself which he did, explaining that "it looks like you had a crash here and I need to go back and get preparations ready," he said he was told: "You did not see anything. There was no crash here. You don't go into town and making (sic) any rumors...that there was a crash." Two military police (MPs) then escorted Dennis out. The next day, Dennis said, he was curious to find out what had happened and called the nurse several times, only to be told she was not in. "About 11 o'clock she called the funeral home....And she said 'I need to talk to you,'" and she suggested meeting at the Officers Club. When they met there, according to Dennis, "She looked like death warmed over. She said, 'You won't believe what happened....Before I tell you anything...you have to give me a _sacred oath_ that you will not ever mention my name or you can get me in a lot of trouble.' I said OK, because I said I would definitely like to know what's going on."