UFO Conjectures

Thursday, June 04, 2020

Malcolm Robinson placed this on Facebook. (I grabbed it and asked his permission to post it here; I didn't get a yes or no)

Copyright (ownership) 2020, Malcolm Robinson
ALIEN ABDUCTION AND PHOTO FROM YORKSHIRE ENGLAND!
DECEMBER 1, 1987 ……YORKSHIRE ENGLAND

One of the most [sic] unique accounts of alien abduction comes to us from the Ilkley Moor in Yorkshire, England. The witness and subject of this case is a former policeman named Philip Spencer. Spencer claims that in the early morning of December 1, 1987, he was taken aboard an unidentified flying craft, and after his release managed to snap a picture of one of the alien beings.

The Ilkley Moor is very much as you would picture it. Reminiscent of the setting of the moors of Baskerville Hall in Conan Doyle’s “Hound of the Baskervilles,” it is an eerie place. It has been said that “The Ilkley Moor can scare you to death during daylight, and at night it’s even worse.”
It is a place of mystery. There is the Swastika stone; boulders etched with strange markings; the Badger Stone; and the Twelve Apostles stone circle.

Many times the only living creatures on the moor are the sheep. Ilkley has other legends too, like the hovering lights at night, which bring occasional reports of UFOs. There are strange, swirling lights that are filtered through the fog and seem to have a mind of their own. Possibly some of the mysterious sights can be attributed to the not too distant Menwith Hill Military Base, or the nearby Leeds Bradford Airport.

The activities of these two facilities will not, however, explain what happened to Spencer. There were also stories of strange creatures that roam across the moor at times.

After four years of being a policeman in another city, Spencer had moved his wife and child to the Yorkshire area to be closer to her family. He was walking across the moor on this December morning heading for his father-in-law’s house and on the way was hoping to get some photographs of the strange light tricks of the moor. To be able to get the images he desired he was using a high ASA rated film to compensate for the poor light in the area.

Unfortunately, the picture that he took was somewhat blurred, but there is no doubt that the creature in the photo is a one of a kind being which basically resembled the small grays.
Along with his camera, Spencer also took a compass to navigate through the fog before sufficient daylight shone through the moor. As he was searching for some photo angles, suddenly he caught the sight of a strange looking being in the slopes ahead of him. He aimed and snapped a picture of the creature which seemed to be gesturing for him to stay away.

It then ran away. Spencer gathered his wits and took off in pursuit of the being. Today he says he doesn’t know why. It was just an impulse reaction. He arrived just in time to get a glimpse of a flying craft with a domed top rise up from the moor and disappear into the sky. Atop the dome was a whitish square. He was not able to get a photograph of the object.

There was silence now. When he saw nothing else of the being or its craft, he began to walk to the nearest village. This walk took about 30 minutes, and during this time, a couple of things became apparent to him. First of all, his compass now pointed south instead of north, and secondly, the village clock showed the time an hour ahead of his…

Spencer was confused now. Did he see what he thought he saw?

To answer this burning question, he headed by bus to the nearest town with instant film development. Sure enough, he had a picture of the creature! It looked to be about 4 foot tall, and had a blue-green tint to its skin. He knew he had something of importance, or at least, he thought he did. He found the proper channels to contact UFO investigator Peter Hough.

Hough knew what he was hearing was a “too good to be true” case, and it worried him, but after meeting Spencer, he was convinced that he was a man of integrity and was not seeking fame or fortune for his picture. There was no reason to not believe what Spencer had told him. Hough began a thorough investigation. The film with the alien picture would be the first thing to undergo professional scrutiny.

The alien picture was first looked at by a wildlife photography expert. The object in the image was not an animal of any known kind. It could not be determined either way if the figure was animate or static. A reconstruction of the original site did establish the alien’s height at or near 4 and one half feet.

The photograph was next sent to Kodak laboratories in Hemel, Hempstead. An analysis showed that the object was indeed part of the original photo, and not superimposed. This conclusion did not, of course, determine what the creature was.

Next, the picture was sent to the United States for computer enhancement and analysis. Dr. Bruce Maccabee, optical physicist with the United States Navy rendered his expert opinion; He stated that the slow film speed used for the low light conditions made the film too grainy for proper testing. “I had great hopes that this case would prove definitive. Sadly circumstances prevent it from being so,” Maccabee stated.

Something strange was noticed in the picture. Appearing on the hill at exactly the spot where Spencer says the UFO was is a white square. Could it be that he had gotten a part of the UFO in the shot unknowingly? He was not sure.

MR

15 Comments:

  • Thank you for this post. I do not use Facebook. So I would not otherwise have learned of this interesting story.

    After so many fake alien photos it is hard to trust any. One hopes this one is different. But that's probably impossible to determine now. I hesitantly say that I have a good feeling about it. Although the alleged creature looks somewhat artificial.

    I do not see any white square in the picture suggestive of a UFO.

    Martin

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at Thursday, June 04, 2020  

  • I don't see the white square either, Martin.

    RR

    By Blogger RRRGroup, at Thursday, June 04, 2020  

  • My 7 year-old grandson can gin up better pictures of aliens on his computer than these absurd images. No one can take any of this seriously....and that's most of the problem with the UFO topic.

    By Blogger Dominick, at Friday, June 05, 2020  

  • Dominick:

    I got this from Nick (Redfern) this morning:

    Nick Redfern
    10:54 AM (3 hours ago)
    to me

    Hey Rich

    That 1987 case that Malcolm Robinson talks about is a genuinely intriguing one, particularly with the photo. I remember all the coverage about it when the story first broke. Interesting!

    Cheers,
    Nick

    By Blogger RRRGroup, at Friday, June 05, 2020  

  • Nick, come on man. And people make fun of me because of my interest in the Heflin photos?! Those photos and the photo analysis of them and the story that Rex Heflin told all have one thousand times the credibility of this nonsense tale. Oh, well, as P.T. Barnum said....

    By Blogger Dominick, at Friday, June 05, 2020  

  • D: You do know the guy was a legit cop, right?

    By Blogger Nick Redfern, at Friday, June 05, 2020  

  • Maybe Dominick is right. We can't forget the Roswell slides imbroglio.

    Martin

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at Friday, June 05, 2020  

  • I always liked this story and remember it from the time it was first reported. I set about trying to analyse the photograph some years ago. The poor quality and lack of the original didn't help. The subsequent article remained unfinished. At the time the witness was unnamed. Not sure if images can be added so I won't try. Here is as far as my speculation went -

    "In December of 1987 a significant UFO event occurred. An alleged ex-policeman was walking on Ilkley Moor when he saw a strange green creature. He hurriedly took a photo then followed it as it scrambled out of view. When he reached the top of the rise he saw a flying saucer taking off. He didn’t get a shot of the saucer. The photograph was publicized as the Ilkley Moor Alien and caused a stir around the world. The witness always retained his anonymity and wanted nothing to do with the photo. Copyright was given to UFO researcher Peter Hough shortly after it was taken.

    The film that was loaded in the camera wasn’t suitable for daytime shots so the photograph is of poor, indistinct quality. Yet sure enough, it does show a four-foot-six tall entity with an outsized, two-lobed head and long arms pretty much as the witness described. But are we looking at it correctly or just seeing what we are told to see? Perhaps what is described as the large head is not a head at all but the left shoulder of a man going up the slope. The hood of a waterproof jacket forms the secondary lobe of the alien cranium. With this in mind another head suddenly becomes apparent. We can just make out a balding head turned back toward the camera. Even the vague features of a face are discernable. The long arm with paddle-like hand may be some misidentified object. Considering its length and shape it could be a metal detector slung over the shoulder and hanging down the back. Ilkley Moor is spotted with aircraft wrecks and metal detectorists often search the moorland for samples of plane debris. The legs appear short because he is wearing light coloured boots so the lower leg blends with the path due to the lack of clarity in the photo. We now seem to be looking at a balding man of average height, wearing a hooded waterproof and light coloured boots carrying a bag or equipment up the track and looking back at the cameraman.

    If it is a man then the entire story is fabricated. Could this be the reason why the witness wanted nothing to do with the photo and never revealed his true identity? It’s possible that the taking of the photo was entirely innocent but when it was printed and its ambiguity became evident a scheme was hatched. And what of the man in the photo? Is he a random passer-by or someone in on the ensuing scam?

    Below are some rarely seen photos of the investigation taken at the location of the incident. Like the alien photo the clarity isn’t that great. The man in the padded jacket and white trousers with his back to the camera in both shots is the unnamed witness. The balding man wearing a hooded jacket and light coloured boots and carrying a holdall is Peter Hough."

    By Blogger David, at Friday, June 19, 2020  

  • Thanks, David,

    Can you provide a link to the "rarely seen photos of the investigation" you note?

    RR

    By Blogger RRRGroup, at Friday, June 19, 2020  

  • The images are on my hard drive, not online. I would have inserted them in the post had it been possible.

    The reason I did nothing with the article is because I didn’t convince myself enough that my analysis was correct. Pareidolia may have been playing a role in my judgement. Is it the face of a balding man that I see or just a variation in tones of the background landscape? The imagery available is too poor to work with to be conclusive. That’s why it’s necessary to enhance, touch up and colourize until it more resembles what you want it to be, whether that be an alien or a person. Whatever, each time I now see the photo I only see a man looking back. The person who took the snap shot knows for sure whether it was a passing stranger, a colleague or a goblin from outer space. I’d like it to be the latter, but have my doubts.

    Cheers



    By Blogger David, at Saturday, June 20, 2020  

  • Again, thanks David....

    I'm not an advocate for "goblins from outer space" or ETs of any kind, as you u probably know, so I can accept your "it's a bald guy" scenario.

    But either way, it's an intriguing story that Malcolm Robinson likes as does my pal Nick Redfern.

    I hoped that other followers here would offer something but, as usual, nada.

    RR

    By Blogger RRRGroup, at Saturday, June 20, 2020  

  • To add a bit more accuracy to the story the first person the witness related his experience to was UFO researcher Arthur Tomlinson, not Peter Hough. Hough got involved some days later. The witness was “regressed” at Tomlinson’s home with Hough and a few others present. The story extracted was typical contactee stuff with shades of the Pascagoula incident. The witness was floated off the ground by the being and taken into the craft where he was experimented on and shown images of mass destruction including something personal that he refused to divulge. Soon after this session Tomlinson lost contact with the witness. “He’s incommunicado with me right now. He won’t answer my letters, nothing. Hough’s got his talons on him,” Tomlinson said in a 1993 interview. It’s often said the witness didn’t gain financially but he had passed copyright to Hough. Tomlinson appeared on The Clive Anderson Talk Show to talk about UFOs and discussed the Ilkley Moor incident, even pulling the photo out of an envelope. Tomlinson says, “I showed the photograph on the Clive Anderson show, and they had to get permission off Hough. He wanted to charge them £200 to show it, but they knocked him down to a hundred - £100 just to show a photograph on television! It’s criminal.”

    Here’s the Clive Anderson segment

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Xl8DpWJfnc

    Source of Tomlinson interview is Headpress issue 6.

    By Blogger David, at Saturday, June 20, 2020  

  • Once you get into the details of the thing, it gets iffier and iffier.

    I'll make a comment for the Facebook crowd to see if we can get to the heart of the tale.

    RR

    By Blogger RRRGroup, at Saturday, June 20, 2020  

  • Like the first poster I'm not a Facebooker. If anything interesting come about can you post it back here.

    Regards,
    David

    By Blogger David, at Sunday, June 21, 2020  

  • Sure....

    Good for you about Facebook...it's a mind-killer.

    RR

    By Blogger RRRGroup, at Sunday, June 21, 2020  

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