Show lj y 1 ry r i 0 t J o j jf f o a 0 2 0 Of R. R ra yooT 0 t J 0 i i Jh Uc A CM 91 fad en OIl U cm L i t e eo m f In Intoe i id is iu t L que f m. m fter kec ie ee p by IKI fl toe oat K won m W that ICett 1 m 0 went to tt A AlSO MSO SO fl toe liw K COItt I JUKI ka t fe itt pe D ff ib baJe m. m we n o euf ff w by uj Fw k SaO Safi uty C 06 Pud I Stale SEale V li Ug I 1 J jr- jr 1 t v February 24 1978 r j j. r xe t f r j Mr Bob Pratt l' l ik 11 NATIONAL ENQUIRER Lantana Florida h 10 t. t r. r p t n. n 0 Jt J. J Dear Bob I have completed my investigation of H. H Kent Petersons Peterson's alleged UFO sighting and the photographs that he took of it He was supposed to prepare a set of photographs for me to send to you but as you'll see I doubt that he will follow through with this Its It's an inte interesting esting story so I think I will have his proof sheet copied so that you can see what Im I'm talking talking talking talk talk- ing about Id I'd like to keep the one he gave me in my file someday I just might want to use this incident as an example of something or other Anyway Im I'm sending you the proof sheet a brief description of the photographs a copy of my interview with Kent and a copy of the map that he drew for forme forme forme me as to where he took the pictures his address etc I would very much appreciate getting a copy of your interview with him to compare with mine Mr Peterson does provide a case history of a certain type and we should try to learn as much from it as possible It seems to me that ther are two possibilities 1 The UFO whoever or whatever they are decided for some totally obscure reason known only to them that it was time to make a fool out of H. H Kent Peterson Thus they showed their machines to him and simultaneously by some virtually supernatural telepathic means took over the complete control of his mind causing his hands to do certain things with his camera but injecting different ideas into his memory They the UFO even managed to vibrate their machine at high speed while Kents Kent's shutter was open so that it would be properly blurred on the negatives Anyway that's one possibility 2 The s second cond possibility is somewhat more familiar to us H. H Kent Peterson decided that it was time timeto to make a fool of the National Nation l Enquirer and its consultants and just maybe to collect a little of the reward being offered by that tion Actually I dont don't feel like I have been made a fool of As it turns out Mr Peterson provided me with a most stimulating opportunity to indulge in photographic detective work The whole incident had nothing to do with UFOs beginning within a matter of seconds after Mr Peterson and his wife and daughter walked into my office He quickly gave me a brief summary of his story and showed me the pic pictures ures Just as quickly a a striking discrepancy between the e story and the e pictures jumped o out t at me Mr Peterson said that he had lad his camera hanging around his neck and that all the pictures were taken with a hand held camera As you can see from the proof sheet this is an absurdity At t least five of the frames and probably also No 13 show exactly the same foreground s A e- e objects with such absolute precision that they could only have been een taken taken with the camera on a tripod The camera was tipped up slightly between frames 17 and 18 but even there it was not moved from side to side This disc discrepancy was so striking that I was immediately highly s suspicious ic ous and began to pursue a number of other lines of of questioning and reasoning I had him record his interview on my dictaphone and Im I'm afraid I a a very a very very go good j job b bof of looking for UFO information I was much more concerned with feeding him rope to hang himself so I didn't even ask him standard things like how far faraway away or how large he thought the object might be Anyway I will summarize the important discrepancies between his story and the photographs photo photo- photographs graphs and then indicate how he made the photographs I just read through the interview and jot jotted d down eight of these thes dis dis- dis- dis First lets let's review the story briefly as contained in the interview interview interview in in- Mr Peterson says he came out of the back side door to get some film from his car parked in the driveway He heard a whine looked up thought he saw two o phantom jets and realized it was two fast moving UFOs His camera was hanging around his neck with a lens with the focal length probably doubled by a r he didn't know and it didn't say on the but it appeared to tobe tobe tobe be a doubling lens He shot a couple of photos from the front porch showing both objects then one left and the rest of the photos show only one object The first photos from the porch were looking to the northeast the rest were taken while standing on a small planter about 1 ft high on the west side of the house looking northwest He says it took less than a minute to take the photos There are other details about color of the object etc Now for the discrepancies iI in izi the order that they appear in the interview 1 He says he was excited and shaking as he took the pictures but there is no sign of any camera movement in any photograph This is especially unexpected using a camera with a telephoto lens It can hardly be done even if youre you're not excited Again the tripod is indicated 2 He clearly says and I made him say it at least twice that tha t the camera was hanging around his neck and not on a tripod The pictures prove that this was impossible 3 He says that he took a photograph while the object was fluorescent white with a solid red base and he showed me which photograph it was Invoking the great mysticism of he implies that even thought his was the appearance appearance appearance appear appear- ance to his eye the film saw it differently I see that as just so much hokum There is no film available that doesn't respond to fluorescent cent w white ite although it is true t that t red if long enough wavelengths might Anyway there is absolutely no sign of the fluorescent light business on the negatives or the prints and furthermore as Ill I'll note below he choose the w wrong ong frame anyway 4 He clearly states that the same lens was used in taking all the pi pictures tures but it is quite apparent that the Cont on pg 4 L' L 40 r j 1 I U 4 verter was not used in in frame 13 and was used in frame 14 and the rest from there on 5 He says that the funny fluorescent white with a red b base se appeared just before the object left but the photo that he pointed out to me as being the object in that con condition P on was was' the first frame that he took As a matter of fact this is where he placed his neck farthest out on the block he obviously hadn't noticed that the frames were numbered along the margin During the time when the dictaphone was off I had ad him tell me the order in which he took the pictures and he had it all garbled up The most striking example was was his telling me that the first photo he took was really the one just before the object disappeared 6 6 He says that he made no camera adjustments during the taking taking of the ten frames I would say that c changing the tel tele- tele converter as mentioned above was an adjustment But in addition the focus changes sharply between frames 9 and 10 and less so so between other frames and the exposure is sharply changed between frames 13 and 14 and between en frames frames' 17 and 18 7 He says that he shot until he ran out of film and yet and yet there are three family group frames on the roll after the last one He really should have looked closely enough to see se those numbers numbers numbers num num- bers on the negatives 8 His most thorough conviction of himself relates to what he had to say about the positions from which the photographs were taken first on the front porch and then as he worked his way along the side of the house toward the bak porch standing standing standing stand stand- ing on the small planter Im I'm afraid he ha is going to flunk that photography class he is taking if he doesn't learn that a photographic record really contains a great deal of hi highly exact information When a photograph is taken regardless of the lens used ther is only one spot in the universe in rela relation tion to all of the things in the from which that photograph could be taken I t told Mr Peterson that I would like to come down and look over the situation where he took the pictures This was said to tobe tobe tobe be at his parents' parents house in Midvale several miles south of Salt Lake City and during a family party on February 4 1978 late in the afternoon sometimes between and pm p.m. I had hoped to get down on Tuesday the but I told him that I probably wouldn't be able to make it until Thursday the yesterday I called on the phone on Wednesday I believe and told his wife I would be down at noon on Thurs Thurs- day s1 She didn't sound too excited b but t she did agree to th this s. s i I didn't g get t to talk to Kent So yesterday I went down I was prepared for various eventualities but for some reason it hadn't occurred to me that he simply wouldn't show up but he As a matter of fact no one was home and there were a number of newspapers on the front porch as though no noone noone noone one had been home for several days The front window was wide open however so maybe the people just dont don't bother to read their newspapers Anyway as I wandered around the house looking the situation over it immediately became apparent apparent apparent ap ap- ap- ap parent that there was no way the photographs could have haye been taken from the positions where Kent said aid he too took them I climbed up on the little planter that he mentioned although a arose arose a arose rose bush made this difficult and established only one spot where one could stand The tree with branches on the right was far too close and so was the house with the drain pipe on the left that is they were far too large compared to the distant house Even the shots from the porch were unlikely because the roof was was' too high in relation to the unless trees Kent were seven feet tall which he isn't So it soon became apparent that the photographs had to be betaken taken from inside the house looking out through the window My but I wanted to get into that house to test this obvious conclusion While I was standing there making some sketches Kents Kent's mothers mother's br brother ther drove up H He tells me that he knows knows knows' exactly where Kent Ken is and that he will try to call him He walks into the the house he house and I walk in big as life right behind him There I is Ind indeed ed no doubt that the photographs were taken from a tripod inside the house looking out the windows The uncle keeps trying to call the house where Kent is supposed to to be but the line is busy and Im I'm not too sorry It seems qu quite te apparent to me by now that Kent is embarrassed embarrass embarrass- e ed and doesn't want to confront me At least Id I'd like to think that he e fina finally ly got smart enough to realize that when I was on the ground it would be apparent that the pictures had to be taken fr from m inside the house This would probably account for his wife's lack o of enthusiasm when she talked to me on the phone Incidentally Kent said that one cousin saw the object for a moment mome t and w would uld tes testify fy I asked the uncle what he thought about it He said he didn't know anything about the photo photo- photographs gr graphs phs but that he too was present on that day and saw the object for a few moments So the h ho hoax ax becomes a small conspiracy Here is what happened Kent has a brand new camera camera and is taking king a photography class On February the family is having a big get For some reason the subject of UFOs comes up and they get to talking about how muc much f fun n nit it would be to see a UFO and to take photographs of it in deed it might even be fun to take fake photographs of a UFO Someone remembers the National Enquirer award and that enters into the conversation Although others are aware of f what's going on Kent agrees to assume most of the responsibility responsibility for telling the story he would be e the only one who who really saw the object very other long witnesses es would claim to see it only bri briefly fly So someone cuts out a UFO model although ugh it looks more like a sports car without wheels wheel They paste it on the front window and set up the camera with witha a long lens Kent has shot about nine frames of his daughter daugh daugh- ter counting frame number 0 so the UFO sequence starts at frame 9 In this frame the one that he said had the fluorescent white with the red base the lens is focused nicely on the Chinese elm tree out in the yard This makes the cutout on the window extremely blurry For frame 10 Kent focuses more on the cutout but not exactly because UFOs should be a little blurry Since the cutout is only a dozen feet away at the farthest this throws the Chinese elm in the front yard completely out of focus With the tree at the distance that it was 30 to 50 ft perhaps there is absolutely no way that focusing on a more distant object could throw the tree that far out of focus The tree could become that blurry only if the camera was focused on a much close instead of more mor distant distant distant dis dis- dis- dis tant object When I examined Kents Kent's pictures this was the second thing that I noticed that the photos had to be taken with the camera on a tripod Actually the same situation shows up when you compare other frames such as 14 and 15 Frame 14 is focused on the distant roof but frame 15 is focused more on the object stuck on the window Anyway while they are taking the pictures of the wheel- wheel less sports car someone else does a better job of cutting out a UFO and painting portholes around the bottom with a felt pen This is stuck on t the e window above the sports car to tomake tomake tomake make frames ll it and and 12 The camera is moved back a little between 11 and 12 and the result is that the objects appear a little smaller Again in 12 there is something behind the object that is extremely out of focus removing any doubt that the objects are extremely close compared to the background For frame 13 they decide to change the scene Instead of looking to the north out out- the front window they look to the northwest out the side or west-facing west window The curtains are taken down and the object is attached to the glass Probably the windows were washed both before and after beca because se no marks appear in the phot photos and I couldn't find any or other marks where the model might have been stuck on the glass For frame 13 the is not used and the amazing thing is that the side and the top of the window actually appear on the right margin and the upper right corner I suppose Kent could have told me in my office that this was part of the house the eves or something but when one is standing on the ground that is seen to be clearly clearly clearly clear clear- ly impossible Kent simply photographed part of the window window window win win- dow Fantastic Now he moves the tripod back and puts on the t ter Since the camera is perhaps twice as far from the object pasted on the window but the has been added the object remains about the same size on the negative-but negative the roof in the background is greatly enlarged by the verter because its relative distance to the camera has hardly changed at all Even here it is possible to detect the top of the window-in window the upper right hand corner of frames 14 15 and 16 In Incidentally before I went down there I had wondered how they had managed to hang up the model in front of the camera camera camera cam cam- era without the thread or whatever being apparent I had decided decided de de- decided de- de that |