When Einstein Went to Roswell by Dr. Peter Strassberg -An Interview

 

I had the opportunity to speak with Dr. Peter Strassberg about his book, When Einstein Went to Roswell. The material about Roswell and UFOs was limited with the majority of the book dealing with his theories about astrophysics and gravity. The real problem with the book was the sixty some pages at the back that were MJ-12 documents that had been copied from the Internet and published without critical comment.

Dr. Peter Strassberg

About the first thing I learned during the discussion, because I asked about it, was if he had been in contact with Tony Bragalia. Bragalia had published, on his website, the tale of Shirley Wright, who claimed that she had accompanied Einstein to Roswell. Her story and her description of the area does not fit in with Roswell narrative as we know it, which is not to say that she didn’t accompany Einstein somewhere else to see the wrecked saucer and alien bodies. I believe, based on what she said, on her description of the security in place, and several other factors, that her tale is, at best, dubious.

I had wondered what documentation that Strassberg had, or what testimony he had, to corroborate the Einstein story. I learned it was his opinion that the MJ-12 documents he published were legitimate and because of that, the tale of Einstein in Roswell was confirmed. We did talk about the history of MJ-12, but he had no real knowledge of that and seemed somewhat surprised to learn about it. To him, the complexity of the MJ-12 documents and the information included in them, suggested they were authentic. However, if they weren’t authentic, and the evidence proves they are not, then the corroboration of the Einstein tale fails at that point.

He was impressed with the Shirley Wright end of it, she claiming to have accompanied Einstein to Roswell, and he had both read Bragalia’s article and listened to the short audio segments of Wright’s story available on his, Bragalia’s, website. I had the impression that he didn’t understand that I too, had listened to the audio segments, given some of his comments. While I found those audio clips impressive given the detail on them, I also realized there were great areas of contradiction. Having served as an Intelligence Officer in both the Air Force and the Army (and yes, Stan, on active duty), I realized that security was broken several times. Wright seemed to be suggesting that because she held some sort of security clearance, though we don’t know what kind or how high (secret? Top secret?) her clearance was, she was cleared to see and hear all. But even if she held a top secret clearance, that doesn’t mean she was cleared to see and hear everything that had been classified at that level. There is that important “need to know” caveat, and she had no need to know any of this. She even admitted that she had been quartered away from the main party during this trip, which suggests that she wouldn’t have been allowed into the secure areas. And when Einstein was allegedly show the alien craft and the bodies of the flight crew, she had no need to accompany him into the hangar, wherever it might have been.

What all this boiled down to was that Strassberg had thought the documents interesting, but as he said, repeatedly, he couldn’t prove they were real. My thought was that since he was the one presenting them as real in his book, wasn’t he obligated to find out if they were legitimate? A simple google search would have led to some of the criticism of the specific documents he used and that might have altered his opinion. It might not, but he would have had a better perspective on them.

He did say, however, that his book was more for entertainment than serious research, and that he liked to write. He gives the book away to his patience and makes no money on them. His other books were more scientifically oriented and, according to him, dealt with problems in the universe. This little venture into UFOs was something of a departure, though he did say he had an interest in the paranormal.

The problem here was the title of the book. It had very little to do with Roswell and Einstein. Had he explored that claim a little deeper, he might have realized that it was unlikely though if he had found Bragalia’s website, he would have taken that as corroboration. This is obvious because he used that information repeatedly to suggest that the MJ-12 documents were real. Such is the problem with the Internet.

And although I hesitate to mention it, he also accepted the Aztec UFO crash as authentic. As we talked about it, he was aware of Scully’s book, Behind the Flying Saucers, and seemed to know a little about that case. But the tale as he told it matches virtually nothing that has been reported on it. I was surprised he hear Strassberg talk about it as a landing rather than a crash, in fact, insisting that it was a landing rather than a crash. To amplify the difference between the information and what Strassberg was saying, he said that there were survivors. I believe he said that twelve alien beings had been found in cryonic suspension, including a number of infants. In the attempts to resuscitate those individuals, most were lost. One survived for a while and provided all sorts of details about its life and mission.

He seemed to be unaware of the history of Aztec. It matters little here what side you fall on, the information he had doesn’t track with any of it. I don’t believe he was aware of either Steinman’s or Ramsay’s books on the subject. Strassberg struck me as overly naïve on the topic, and I did mention that his book was something of a disserve because of the uncritical nature of it. I suppose I could say, the bad information in it and the reliance of the MJ-12 documents as evidence of the disservice.

In the end, his rallying cry seemed to be that he was not out to prove anything. His mission was to entertain, and to be fair, I had an entertaining hour chatting with him about all this, though not so much in reading his book. Of course, I don’t think I made much of an impression on him. As they say, he just wasn’t that into the topic. For him, UFOs are mildly interesting but not to the point of diving below the surface before committing his thoughts to paper (or should I say to electronic data in his computer).

Oh BTW, the book is not for those who have any knowledge of the UFO field. As Strassberg said, it was more for entertainment and seen as a research tool. In fact, according to the publisher, Full Court Press, they are “For the discerning author: Self publishing with style.” There seems to be no vetting of the information, but then, that is often a problem in the world today.

Did Albert Einstein Visit Roswell

 

Probably not.

Which is not to say that the story told by Dr. Shirley Wright is completely in error. There are, however, some disturbing aspects of it. These are subtle things that civilians might not know when discussing military operations, military intelligence and military secrecy.

But first, there is the description of the base where Albert Einstein and Wright found themselves. It is not the Roswell Army Air Field. The description doesn’t really match much of what was there in 1947. It’s not all that isolated from the town and even if they had arrived by commercial air into Roswell, the drive to the base wouldn’t have taken all that long.

Albert Einstein in 1947.

I believe, at the point, that Wright, hearing all the conversation about Roswell just assumed that was the base. She originally said it was in the desert southwest and that covers a lot of territory. I could make a case for them landing in Alamogordo, which is about 100 miles from Roswell. And there would be a drive over to what was then the White Sands Proving Ground… though this isn’t quite right either.

Len Stringfeld thought it might have been Muroc, which became Edwards Air Force Base. That seems to be a better fit for what Wright described, but there really is no evidence that anything from Roswell was taken there. It was all flown out of Roswell and went to the east.

Could we have the sequence wrong? Sure. But I don’t think so. The testimony of too many suggest a transfer of materials to Wright Field and then to other points. General Arthur Exon talked of the bodies arriving at Wright Field and one of them being sent to Lowry in Denver. Given the timing, Lowry, which became surrounded by various communities, would have been on the edge of them in 1947. But then, it was just a single body and not the craft.

But the idea that this was from Roswell is probably the result of contamination by Stringfield. He wrote:

After pinning down the time-frame of her trip with the eminent scientist to the early part of July in 1947 (which wasn’t easy) [parenthetical statement in original] I asked the key question: Was the saucer you saw the one that crashed near Roswell” Her non-committal response: “No one said that it was from the Roswell crash, but I did hear that name pop up during my trip. Now, remember, I told you, they didn’t tell me anything of important, no secrets [emphasis added] or details. My boss who had the right clearance made a report, which I didn’t see. I was just told to keep my mouth shut.”

The real problem is the misunderstanding about how classified material is handled and what it means to have a security clearance. Just because you might hold a top-secret clearance, doesn’t mean that you have access to everything that is classified. You also need to have a need to know. If you don’t, then your access will be denied.

The situation described does not make sense in that arena. Wright told Shelia Franklin that she, Wright, was 18 in 1947 and was “one of the students chosen to study advanced physics with a world-famous scientist [Einstein] at an eastern university [Princeton].” All right, I suppose that might happen.

It was in that summer that Einstein found himself at an emergency meeting that was a gathering of many elite scientists and military leaders. Einstein had asked Wright to go with him. She had a security clearance because all his students studying with him that summer were required to have them.

But what does that mean? Was she cleared for top secret? Just secret? Were there any caveats on that clearance? We just don’t know. We’re told she had a security clearance that is supposed to answer all these questions. The level of the clearance is important and without that information, we have no way to evaluate this claim.

Anyway, Einstein and Wright are taken to this area, where the flying saucer and apparently the bodies of the alien flight crew are kept. An area that is probably not Roswell.

Here’s a point that makes little sense. Wright said that she and Einstein were taken across the desert to a base with scattered buildings. She said, according to Stringfied, “Unlike the others in her group, who probably stayed at the base, she was escorted to a small motel.” She had been segregated from the rest of them, suggesting that she was not needed to attend the meetings, nor was she wanted at them.

Then, according to what she told Len Stringfield; she became more involved in what was going on. According to Stringfield:

During her stay at this location, Professor Simpson [Wright, the pseudonym Stringfield gave her] recalls visits to a well-guarded old hangar. Inside, she got her first glimpse of the aliens on display for all to see. “Some of the specialists,” she said, “were allowed closer looks, including my boss. To me, they all looked a like, all five of them (emphasis in original). They were about five feet tall, without hair, with big heads and enormous dark eyes. And, yes, their skin was grey with a slight greenish tinge but for the most part, the bodies were not exposed, being dressed in tight-fitting suits. But I heard they had no navels or genitalia.” After a brief pause, Simpson [Wright] went on. “One of the aliens stood out above the rest. It had a bilious green fluid oozing from its nostrils. But it was strange; after exposure to the air, the ooze gradually became bluish, suggesting maybe a copper or cobalt base. I’m guessing it might have seeped from a gall bladder-like organ. In fact, I wondered if it was still alive, but I wasn’t close enough to see any body movement or hear any comment from the medics.”

She also said that at the far end of the hangar, she could see the spacecraft. It was disc-shaped. She said that she was bad at judging distances and size but that it took up about a quarter of the hangar floor, which is, of course meaningless without knowing the size of the hangar.

Given that she was on the periphery of the event, and given that she served no useful purpose on the trip, why was she allowed into the hangar at all? She already said that she had been separated from the rest of the group. She said she was told no secrets. What is important here is that even if she had a top-secret clearance (which I doubt) she had no need to know. Why bring her in on this at all? She is just one more potential leak.

To make this potential leak even more relevant, she told Stringfield she had 48 35mm photos of that scene in the desert. In a tale that is somewhat reminiscent of the Roswell Slides, we now have another civilian with a dubious connection to the case, photographing the scene. She said that she had photos, which, of course, would substantiate the tale. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to create four dozen pictures of alien bodies, body parts, the alien craft, and the scientists standing around them.

But as happens in all these stories, those photographs are unavailable. Most disappeared when her car was stolen. The pictures were in her briefcase in the car but you have to wonder why she was carrying them around in a somewhat cavalier fashion. However, she still had a few of the pictures. She promised to send copies but according to Stringfield, they never arrived.

Here’s where we are. We have a story told by a rather prominent university professor, who tells the story in a straight forward and convincing manner. Like Rich Reynolds, I was impressed with her answers during the short clips that were available. It sounded as if she was telling of an experience she lived rather than one she made up. She didn’t grope for the details.

We get a vague description of the base and her activities. I’m not overly concerned about that. If you are dropped into an unfamiliar environment, you might certainly be confused about the location. Her description of the trip out into the desert hints that there were no real landmarks or indications of where she was.

The trouble, for me, arises in the terrible lapse of security. If we grant that what fell near Roswell was an alien spacecraft, then we must also assume that it would be highly classified. You wouldn’t want our competitors in the world to know that we had an alien technology that if we could understand, would propel us far ahead of them. To this end, you would limit access to the information to a very few who might be able to help you understand that technology. That would not extend to young assistants to those summoned to the secret location. There is simply no way that she would have been allowed to see what she claimed to have seen.

To make it worse, she talked about dozens of photographs. We don’t know if she took them or how she gained possession of them, but this would be a horrible lapse of security. I’m not even sure that Einstein would have been in possession of these photographs, if they ever existed… But all this speculation is irrelevant. The photographs are gone and the claim of evidence that can’t be produced is no evidence at all.

While this doesn’t negate the entire story, for me it raises more than a few red flags. I would think that we might be able to learn what Einstein was doing in July 1947, and if he could have made a trip into desert southwest. Before we accept or reject this tale, we need to find additional data.