by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear
In 1980, The Roswell Incident by Charles Berlitz and William Moore was published. In the book, on page 103 of the first printing, there is a bad photocopy of a photo showing two soldiers escorting a small creature. One of the soldiers is carrying a suitcase-shaped object that seems to be a respiration device, as there is a hose going from it to the creature’s mouth. The photo is said to have “reportedly first surfaced in Wiesbaden, Germany.” In 1981, Wiesbaden resident Klaus Webner took it upon himself to investigate. He wrote an article presenting his findings that was published in the September 1981 issue of The Probe Report, put out by the Britain-based Probe UFO Research Organization.
In the book, the photocopy is presented with the caption “Alien from Another World or Elaborate Hoax?” The reader is told that it, along with the “artist’s interpretation” on the preceding page, is being published “without comment about whether it may or may not pertain to certain significant aspects of the Roswell Incident.” According to the authors, “an unnamed informant” gave the original photo, which he said he bought for a dollar, to FBI agent John Quinn at the New Orleans field office. They say the photo “purports to show an alien survivor of a UFO crash in the custody of two U.S. military policeman.” Lastly, they say that it got “limited publicity in West Germany in the 1940s” and was met “with skepticism by U.S. officials of the then-existent Allied Military Government.”
In his article headlined “The Strange Case of ‘Mister X,’” Webner describes Berlitz as “inventor of the Bermuda Triangle and mystification man of all things which are surroundable [sic] with the haze of mystery, and realisable [sic] in hard cash.” He describes the book as “nothing more than a mixture of far-fetched speculations, fantasies and false information.”
Webner didn’t have to look far to establish the origin of the original photo. According to him, he found an article in “the archives of the local newspaper Wiesbadener Tagblatt” that had three photos under the headline “Flying saucers over Wiesbaden. A Giant Flying Disc Crashed at the Bleindenstadter Kopf. Crew Member is in Protective Detention. No Cause for Panic.”
According to Webner, the article reports that a “crew member” had been taken into protective custody after a search for a saucer that had crashed overnight near Wiesbaden. He says the detainee is described as a “strange creature with only one leg moving about a rotating plate. His arms come to an end in four stubby fingers.” It reportedly had “large glaring eyes” and an oval-shaped head. The creature, called “Mr. X” in the article, was said to have been taken to the Neroberg Hotel where it would be taken for daily walks between “14 and 15 hours” in order to get used to our atmosphere. A search for other crew members was said to be ongoing. The photo used in the article showing the creature in custody is presented in Probe. The reproduction in Probe is of much better quality than the photocopy seen in The Roswell Incident, but they both come from the same source.
Webner tells the reader that the article was published on April 1, 1950. According to him, on April 15, 1981, he was able to talk with the reporter and the photographer.
The reporter was Wilhelm Sprunkel, and he told Webner that the whole thing was an April Fool joke. Sprunkel wanted to make the photo as realistic looking as he could, so he called the local U.S. liaison officer (we presume he told him his plan) and asked if he could “borrow” two soldiers. The officer laughed and said he needed to get permission from the commanding officer. The commanding officer also laughed and said he needed to get permission from headquarters in Heidelberg. Permission was granted, and Sprunkle proceeded with his plan with the help of photographer Hans Scheffler.
First, Sheffler created fake saucer photos using pictures he took of “light fountain glasses from Wiesbaden’s cure house pond.” He cut out saucer shapes and stuck them on photos that would provide a background. One of these, showing two saucers over the Market Place Church, is reproduced in Probe.
For the creature, Scheffler enlisted the aid of his five-year-old son, Peter. One of the soldiers held a jerry can and Sheffler painted in the “hose, breathing gear, horror head, griffin hands, one leg and foot-plate.” The source of the photos was given as “3 TRANSLAG/USA PHOTOS” which was invented by Sprunkel using the name of a local business.
The story caused a sensation, and the American Wiesbaden Post reprinted it along with the photos. Sprunkle got a call from a female journalist who wanted to buy the copyright for the Mr. X photo, and it took Sprunkle around 20 minutes to convince her that the story was a joke. The Wiesbaden Tagblatt published a confession on April 3rd under the headline “Tuchtig Reingefallen!” which Webner translates to “Good Letdown!” and Google translates to “Fell Right In!”
As for how Moore and Berlitz got ahold of the photocopy, Webner says it was discovered by UFO Information Network affiliate Barry Greenwood. According to Webner, UFOIN had “acquired a bundle of FBI photocopies” thanks to the Freedom of Information Act. Because the photocopy was in such bad shape, another UFOIN affiliate, Lawrence Blazey, made the “artist’s impression.” He says, “William Moore ordered this material for his book The Roswell Incident and Mister X was born for the second time.”
Webner says his investigation was easy, as there were only two newspapers in Wiesbaden. According to him, he was told by employees at Wiesbadener Tagblatt that neither Belitz nor Moore had contacted anyone at the paper and neither had anyone else. He tells the reader that Sprunkle, Scheffler, “and even Mister X himself, Peter Scheffler are still employed there.”
Webner’s research resulted in the paper publishing an article on April 22, 1981, headlined, “A Tagblatt April Fool Joke in the files of the FBI…” Webner laments that his name wasn’t mentioned.
As for the Roswell story, Webner concludes that “the latest research says” that “‘Crashed flying saucers’ and ‘crew members on ice’ are fantasies and not facts!”
https://archive.org/details/charles-berlitz-william-l.-moore-the-roswell-incident-1980_202012/mode/2up