Bulletin 19:
OLIVER'S CASTLE VIDEO -- YET MORE HOCUS-POCUS ...
Like Mr Santilli's "Alien Autopsy" scam, the Oliver's Castle Video (OCV), showing mysterious balls of light apparently forming the "Snowflake" crop formation, continues to attract attention on the Internet where a number of desperately seeking croppies try to convince the rest of us that it is genuine. Their ardent belief may be undimmed but any pretence that the video is genuine must surely be shattered in view of the fact that even Colin Andrews, the high priest of croppies, has rejected it all as a fake.
In an e-mail letter sent to Erik Beckjord on 29th January 1997, Colin wrote :-
I can assure you that when all the information that is known is placed into the public domain, the OC video will be seen as a fraud. There are some very worrying aspects to it as far as the original plan and the man who is in the centre of it all Mr John Wabe. Just 'maybe' this man has been put to work on his first disinformation job by people in high places whom he met while at Nottingham University, studying for a degree in, of all things, 'American Studies' - Naughty Uncle Sam at work again!!!!!!"
There are several incontestable reasons for believing the video is bogus even without the information which Colin has collected by use of a private detective agency. First and foremost is the fact that "John Wheyleigh", the person who produced a copy of the video in the Barge Inn and showed it to Peter Sorensen, Paul Vigay and others --though his primary target was always Colin Andrews-- is an "invisible" person. Besides the copy of the video, he left behind him only a mobile telephone number which was always unobtainable and later appeared to have been discontinued. "John Wheyleigh" is undoubtedly a borrowed or fictitious name, though whether the person masquerading as Wheyleigh in the Barge Inn was, or was not, John Wabe remains in doubt.
Is it believable that such a dubious character would produce a genuine piece of film? If it was was genuine, what need was there for such anonymity? Surely, had the film been genuine, the person who shot it would have been only too willing to come forward, and eager too to collect any royalties on whatever commercial use was made of the film segment? Of course, but in this murky case the OCV film was deliberately directed at Colin, who had been targeted as the croppie most likely to accept it as genuine.
In contrast, Steve Alexander shot a video film of a bright object moving over cropfields near the great Milk Hill pictogram of July 1990. Did he cloak himself in anonymity or vanish away without trace? Certainly not, and the genuineness of Steve's film was confirmed months later by a tractor driver (whose tractor appears in the footage) who said he had seen the unidentified object pass above him. Steve is now well known to most of those in the world of crop circles and, whatever his film shows, there can be no suggestion that he faked it like "Wheyleigh's" video film.
On his webpage (http://rainbow.medberry.com/enigma/Artcl11_2.html) Paul Vigay, writing about the OCV, mentions various additional reasons for believing that it was faked. Not the least of which is that the camera was set up pointing directly at the crop field where the "Snowflake" formation would appear, conveniently filling the field of view of the camera thus focused. Now, isn't that an amazing coincidence? The formation unfolds on the video in just a few seconds. Interestingly the straight pathways are seen to form last, despite the fact that it could be clearly seen on the ground at the time that these pathways were underneath the lay of the crop in the satellite circles and must have been laid down earlier. How does any advocate of the film being genuine explain this ?
Paul has used his computer hardware and software to produce a very similar piece of video film to Mr "Wheyleigh's" OCV. That this can be done in a few hours without highly expensive and specialised equipment gives the lie to the claim often made on the Internet that it would be impossible to fake such footage without considerable expertise and expenditure. That simply is not true. Exactly the same argument was used a year ago in defence of the bogus "alien autopsy"; it wasn't true in that case and this argument is not true now. Nevertheless the dwindling band of starry-eyed advocates of OCV being genuine, such as Michael Glickman, ilyes and Andy Thomas, still put forward such arguments.
[Anyone who is interested in obtaining a copy of Paul Vigay's home-made reproduction of the OCV sequence may request one from him by sending a blank videotape and SAE (+ appropriate postage) to Paul Vigay, 104 Manners Road, Southsea, Hants PO4 0BG, U.K.]
Colin Andrews's suggestion that this was a disinformation project, possibly inspired by the US government is however more difficult to sustain. Perhaps he will put forward any proof he has that this was the case? His e-mail message to Erik Beckjord continues as follows:
John Wabe set up business with a video/TV company in Bristol where they make high quality video's for the television and pop music industry and have all the equipment that is needed to have made the several versions of this OC video. If I can find the funds to continue this investigation I think we will have the evidence to prove the involvement of other people (some well known within the crop circle field) and perhaps Uncle Sam too. I spent an hour with my detective agent in UK recently and it is clear that something very well planned is involved. It is also clear that more than one film version is involved."
"Other people ... some very well known within the crop circle field", says Colin. Well, well ! It is not hard to guess who was really behind the OCV scam in that case, and we don't have to look very far. On the evening before the Oliver's Castle "Snowflake" formation appeared (August 10th 1996) circlefaker Robert Irving came to the Barge Inn to meet another circle- faker, Paul Mann. It should be emphasised that Irving was not seen often in the Barge in 1996 since he lives in London, about eighty miles away. Apparently he was heard to say that there would be crop circles that night, though no other circles are known to have been made anywhere else.
Later Irving and Mann left the Barge and drove together in the direction of Lockeridge. After that it is not known where they went. However, I believe that it is very significant that Paul Mann (together with Adrian Dexter) had made a fine set of crop circles, known as the "Three Nested Crescents" or the "Three Torcs", at Oliver's Castle --near Devizes, just seven miles from the Barge-- in July 1994. This was in the adjoining field, on farmer David Leonard's land, to that in which the "Snowflake" was found on August 11th 1996. Hardly a coincidence: I have little doubt that Irving and Mann made the "Snowflake" formation, though needless to say Irving denies it.
In view of the fact that Irving had also forged a photograph of a flying saucer in an aircraft hangar at a NATO base in Italy (which was published in 'Fortean Times') using computer techniques to combine two digitised images some months previously, it would be fairly remarkable if he was NOT involved in the OCV scam given that he was there on that night. I have already made this accusation on the Internet, only to be met with the usual barrage of malicious abuse from Irving himself.
Nevertheless, as they say, the truth is out there, despite the fact that the perpetrators of such scams will always deny it and the starry-eyed, desperate to believe, invariably suspend any critical facilities which they may have.
George Wingfield
February 1997
Dear Erik,
I don't know about your "Heheheheheh....." but you have got part of what I said in my last e-mail to you entirely wrong. I did not say that "Rob and Paul and Adrian" made the "Three Torcs" at Oliver's Castle in 1994. I said that Paul Mann and Adrian Dexter made the formation and this is not just my view but that of other well known observers of the crop circle scene.
The evidence is not based solely on the claims of the particular circlefakers involved. It is based on an assessment of what has been said by a number of people including the circlefakers themselves and their colleagues. It is never the policy of circlefakers to make such claims publicly but they have often spoken privately with people about their work. Then one must assess, as would be the case in a court of law, which of these "witnesses" is telling the truth. Some are, some aren't. Contrary to what Irving says about Adrian Dexter, he has indeed confided to several people that he and Paul Mann made the "Three Torcs" in 1994. There is no reason to think that this was a false claim. Be assured that some of us here have a much better view of what has been going on than you do from California.
Note that Irving leaps to deny his involvement in making the "Three Torcs". Quite so -- he was not involved, and I never said he was. However, will he deny that he was in The Barge Inn on the evening of August 10th 1996, that he left with Paul Mann, and that later they made the "Snowflake" formation, featured in the OCV, at Oliver's Castle?
Irving says that he has suggested that I debate with him my contention that he and his friends Lundberg and Dickinson were involved in the making of Ray Santilli's "Alien Autopsy" video --at the Fortean Times UnConvention on April 19/20th. It is unlikely, since I have other arrangements for the weekend in question, but I will consider it if, and when, I receive a written invitation from the Fortean Times.
In view of the fact that Irving tried to feed me false information about his involvement in the "alien autopsy" scam a year ago, using small-time circlefaker Chris Kenworthy, there is every reason to think that he WAS involved, for this was hardly the action of an innocent party. I was aware of what he was up to and I have a tape recording of a conversation in which Kenworthy admits that he had done this at the instigation of Irving.
As for Irving's suggestion that a psychiatrist should comment, I think it an excellent idea that one should be asked to explain to us what makes a man spend hundreds of hours at night in other people's crop fields, over the last five years, obsessively creating crop circle formations with the intent of deceiving people. The rather lame excuse that it was "performance art" (graffiti, possibly!), and that no deception was ever intended, simply does not ring true and I believe that psychiatrists should investigate the psychopathology of such people.
GW