Posthuman Blues

UFO DIRTBAG OF THE MONTH

"For those of you not familiar with Dan Burisch (aka Dan Crain), he claimed to be a Ph.D. microbiologist working on a top secret black ops project involving an alien named J-Rod."

What I don't get is why anyone fell for this guy's claims in the first place (among them the talented but worryingly credulous Linda Moulton Howe, who seems to accept evident sincerity as virtual "proof" that a given source is recounting the truth).

When Burisch's claims surfaced, I was immediately suspicious because of the name of his presumed alien contact, "J-Rod." This was the same name cited by an earlier hoaxer who claimed involvement with aliens and the military; moreover it was unclear if Burisch's "J-Rod" was an individual alien or if the term denoted an entire species. Obviously, UFO mythology was being messily recycled; I intentionally refrained from commenting on the affair on this blog because it was so appallingly lame.

To pound the final nail in the coffin, Burisch offered a black and white photocopy of a creepily realistic-looking "alien" as evidence. I immediately recognized it as a model constructed by an FX team and posted on the Web in '98 or '99; Whitley Strieber had headlined a color version of the image on his site, wondering if it might be the real thing.

Nevertheless, no one seemed to remember the photo's subsequent history: The FX guys claimed it was theirs and, more importantly, proved it by showing the same dummy in their possession. As I recall, they hadn't intended to create a furor -- over-eager true believers did the leg-work for them. Weirdly, while many critics eagerly attacked Burisch's tale, no one seemed to recall the story behind his "smoking gun" alien photo.

So now everyone (except for the inevitable die-hard minority whose world is simply not complete without a shadowy government-alien alliance lurking in the background) knows Burisch is a liar, and a really bad one, at that.

One question: Why didn't Strieber instantly step in and point out that Burisch's photo was a known fabrication? He had to have been aware of it. And Linda Howe, being a regular contributor to Strieber's online radio show, should certainly have been aware as well.