Book Review

Body Snatchers in the Desert: The Horrible Truth at the Heart of the Roswell Story

Reviewed by Rosemary Ellen Guiley for FATE Magazine

Body Snatchers in the Desert: The Horrible Truth at the Heart of the Roswell Story

By Nick Redfern

Paraview Pocket Books (New York), 2005, paperback, 352 pgs. $14.00

Roswell, New Mexico takes center stage once again in the controversy over whether an alien craft crashed near there in 1947, and a government coverup ensued. Depending on whom you believe, Roswell has been both proved and debunked several times over. Yea or nay, the tiny town has become a UFO pilgrims’ mecca.

Now British researcher Nick Redfern unveils the startling results of his own investigation in Body Snatchers in the Desert. If you are wondering what more could possibly be said about Roswell, Redfern has the answer: plenty. And it has nothing to do with extraterrestrials.

Redfern is well-known among ufologists and paranormal researchers, and in his previously published books he has reported on UFO coverups and secrets on both sides of the Atlantic. He now lives in Dallas, Texas.

Redfern’s Roswell investigation spanned eight years, from 1996 to 2004, during which he tracked down military and intelligence whistle-blowers. He relates that initially he was skeptical of their shocking claims, but then verified the “horrible truth” about what really happened. The story, he says is much darker than anything put forward to date.

No alien space craft with ETs aboard crashed on the Foster Ranch near Roswell, Redfern says. There was a craft and balloon crash and there were unusual bodies recovered from the wreckage. But the craft and balloon array (afixed together) were ours, brought down by a lightning strike. The bodies were congenitally deformed Asian human beings who had been subjected to high-altitude radiation experiments for the feasibility of a nuclear-powered domestic military aircraft. The victims came from Unit 731, a World War II-era medical atrocities program conducted by the Japanese.

Mixed into the witches’ brew of this scenario are Operation Paperclip, which enabled Nazi scientists to emigrate to the U.S.; German-developed flying discs and wings; MJ-12; and testimony from secret sources, among them the “Black Widow,” an eighty-ish woman who approached Redfern in 2001 with an account of seeing bodies brought to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee where she worked at the time of the Roswell incident. Allegedly there were other crashes of similar experiments with similar victims. The ET-UFO angle was a cover story to hide the real truth.

Redfern deftly weaves his different avenues of investigation together and provides an appendix of documents. Body Snatchers sustains interest and offers an intriguing scenario. Is it convincing? Will Roswell afficionados give up aliens for Asians? Most likely, readers probably will decide that what really happened at Roswell still remains shrouded in mystery. Nonetheless, Body Snatchers will ensure that a lively debate will carry on.

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Published in FATE in July 2005. For more information about FATE, visit www.fatemag.com.