Not the Roswell Slides and Richard Dolan

Richard Dolan has now chimed in on the Not Roswell Slides and his critique while interesting does little to further our knowledge. We are basically back where we were on May 4 except that there is now a better quality photo out there for us to look at.

Dolan says, repeatedly, “…my position on the slides is still not firm. I have been and remained impressed with the story behind their provenance — such as we can put it together. And I am currently impressed with the analyses performed on the slides themselves, as well as the body in question. These analyses are far more technically detailed than the criticism against them that I have seen. My position would change if I am presented with analyses that deal with the data already provided. Not people’s hunches or invective.”

And that is where many of us are, except that we might be leaning in one direction or the other more so today than we were on May 4. We don’t have enough information but the reason we don’t is that it hasn’t been offered though it had been promised.

Dolan said that he was impressed with the story behind the slide’s provenance, but that is all there is, a story. No evidence was provided that proved these slides were taken by the Rays, the chain of custody is broken in repeated instances, and we really don’t know when or where they were taken. What we do have are guesses based on limited information and I think back to the Alien Autopsy when the same games were played. The provenance would be provided but it never was. Here we are told that the Rays lived in Midland, Texas, the slides were recovered in Sedona, Arizona, and ended up in Chicago some twenty years after discovery owned by a man whose identify has not been revealed. Not a compelling provenance.

Dolan wrote about those who had suggested the body is a mummy of some kind. “Such people — all of them English-speakers — obviously did not acquaint themselves with the detailed and technically proficient treatment of these very questions by the three scientists who were featured last night: Jose Benetez, Dr. Luiz Antonio de Alba Galindo, and Richard Doble, The first two of these spoke in Spanish, and I understand there may have been glitches at times with the translation on the livestream. However, Richard Doble’s Skype interview was in English and extremely easy to follow. The Spanish speakers were simply outstanding, and I was able to listen via translation. All of these gentlemen spoke in detail and with deep analysis as to why that body was not a human being.”

This is known as an appeal to authority. We are not allowed to voice an opinion because experts in the field have rendered the proper opinion and we are not qualified to judge it. And while the experts cited by Dolan have impressive credentials, they are not the only experts who have spoken about this. Others, who have been approached by the skeptical community, have suggested a variety of other opinions and before anyone points it out, I’m well aware that they didn’t have access to good quality copies of the slides. The point is, we’ll end up with dueling experts and unless or until someone finds the precise mummy, the arguments will rage.

Dolan has suggested that we all should wait until the investigation is completed or as he said, “I do think they absolutely deserve genuine investigation.”

Yes, but shouldn’t that have been done before the great reveal in Mexico City. After all, they sat on this for three years, apparently investigating them. They promised an expert from Kodak, who would explain why the slides were dated to the late 1940s, but he was a no show… and blame is laid at the feet of those who dared to call him at home, irritating him to the point that he wanted no part of this. One of those, Lance Moody, called him in the middle of the afternoon and had a nice conversation with the man. The other harasser was apparently Billy Cox, a journalist who could be expected to attempt to verify the information and who also called in the middle of the afternoon. So who were these other harassers?

Dolan and I agree on one thing. The Not Roswell Slides deserve more investigation and research, and as Jimmy Church said during his radio show last night, there are now, literally millions of potential investigators out there. They have a fairly good image, and they will be scanning the Internet and museums and everything else in search of the twin of this image. We do have access to about every aspect of human knowledge now that we have the Internet and global connection.

There is one other point to be made about the Not Roswell Slides. Paolo Harris made the point, as has Stan Friedman, (and which has also been said by Don Schmitt and Tom Carey) and one that I will reinforce. There is nothing to tie these slides to the Roswell case and that is where the provenance fails completely.

So, here we are, two days after the great reveal and we have nothing new to show for it (other than a better picture). We don’t really know anything that we didn’t before, so, as Dolan suggests, we do need to complete a full investigation. The only thing I fear is that this will take as long as it did for the Alien Autopsy… I hope we get an answer in a little timelier manner but given what I have seen, I don’t see that happening.