Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files (2010) s02e09 Episode Script
Sinister Spirals & Flying Saucers
Awesome! Look at that thing! Hey.
How are we? What's going on, man? - What's happening? - Hey.
Do I have some videos to look at today? - Can I go first? - Sure.
An amateur ghost hunter named Benjamin Rios and his girlfriend they were visiting the Menger Hotel in San Antonio, Texas.
Supposedly, it's haunted.
When he went there, he asked for the most haunted room there the Sherman Suite.
But when he gets there, they capture some really unusual footage on his camera.
Check this out.
You see that? Right down the center, an apparition walking across.
Now, wait until it completely leaves.
Ooh, it's like it walked through that hall.
Oh.
It looks like it goes back into the back room.
It completely goes around the corner and exits the room.
Is anybody else seeing what I'm seeing? It looks like the apparition or ghost is missing the whole lower half of its body.
Oh, you know what? I notice that, too.
I'm familiar with this case.
This hotel was built in 1859, and there are many reports of spirits haunting this location.
People have reported that they've seen this ghost carrying a load of towels to a room that she never seems to deliver.
I want to go to this hotel and find out what's going on.
Now you're talking.
You know, the ghost definitely has the transparency that you would think a ghost would have, but it just seems like it would be so easy to do on CG.
Well, I like the place, I love the location, I think that this is pretty easily replicated by CG, but I don't want to totally rule it out.
So why don't we see what else we have? Jael? There were some kids that were playing soccer in a home in Mexico City.
They had been hearing strange sounds all night.
They didn't know where they were coming from.
But suddenly, their game is interrupted by a strange creature that frightens them.
Check out the video.
- Oh! Did you see it? - Wow! It had, like, a pointy hat.
- Yes! Did you see that? - Yeah, it does look like that.
So, they saw this in person, not just on camera? They saw it in person.
These witnesses, they believe that what they saw was the legendary duende, which, in Mexico, translates to gnome.
What's to say that this wasn't just a cat or a chicken? That was actually my first thought when I saw this.
But then I heard these kids, and I'm like, "they sound so genuinely frightened.
" This looks like it could be pretty easily re-created with maybe, like, a puppet or a marionette.
You can see it slightly lifts and floats as it moves across the screen, kind of like a puppet being pulled by a line.
I'd like to look at a case like this.
We haven't approached this subject before.
I think it's fairly easy to replicate.
- Let's see what else we have today first.
- Okay.
All right, guys.
So I have a series of polaroids that are actually evidence of a well-documented and famous UFO case the Rex Heflin UFO encounter.
Now, this case still remains highly influential in the annals of UFO research not just because of the four iconic photos he captured that day, but it also supports the legend of the men in black.
Take a look.
These photos were taken on August 3, 1965, by a guy named Rex Heflin.
The first three photos show a saucer-like object high in the sky.
And the fourth one it depicts a mysterious smoke ring that Heflin said the exiting craft left behind.
Now, the first 3 photos were shot within 20 seconds.
What kind of camera? It was a polaroid 101.
Wouldn't it be kind of a challenge with that camera? It's definitely hard to do because between every single shot, you have to pull the film.
I think that taking three photos in a minute is entirely possible, but I'd like to test 20 seconds.
Is Rex Heflin available for an interview? Unfortunately, he passed away in 2005, but he did work with a team of investigators, so I'm sure we can get one of them to help us out on the case.
So, where do the men in black come in? I know this case well.
Supposedly, in 1965, when these photos surfaced, Rex Heflin says he was visited at his home by two strange men dressed in black suits.
Now, they claimed they were from NORAD, and they encouraged him to turn over the photos, which he did.
Many people believe that the two men in black are part of a massive ongoing government cover-up between extraterrestrial and civilian encounters.
It gets even more strange because supposedly, after 28 years of the photos being gone, mysteriously, they show up in Rex's mailbox.
I love this case.
This is a slam dunk for me, you guys.
It's got great historical background and completely testable.
Well, it sounds like this is one that we should do.
Let's find out what else we have.
All right, guys, I have a video that comes all the way from Sao Paulo, Brazil.
A couple motorists are driving down the highway, and they see something in the sky.
They pull over, take out their camera phones, and start to record what looks like a massive UFO actually creeping out from behind the clouds.
- Whoa! Look at that! - Where? - Right there.
Right in the center of the screen.
- In the middle.
What?! Oh, my gosh.
It looks like a radiant light probe just shoots down towards the earth.
I like the video, but I think there may be kind of a dead giveaway that this is probably CG.
Ben, back up this clip a little bit to right before this truck appears.
Okay.
Go ahead and play.
And watch when the truck enters frame.
Keep going.
One frame.
Gone.
Wow! Oh! And then, after the truck passes, it suddenly reappears.
Wow.
Nice catch, Bill.
Why don't we move on to Bill? For years, there have been reports in the paranormal community of an unusual phenomenon known as spiraling rods, or skyfish.
Now, this video was shot by Nick Corey, who's a naturalist, and he's also a paranormal enthusiast.
He feels that this video is proof of the existence of what he calls the skyfish.
- It did.
- Oh, wow.
Look at that.
Oh, wow! Some people feel that these are possibly inter-dimensional beings that have a way of traveling in and out of our world.
Well, now, the skeptics, on the other hand, they say there's a much more plausible, natural explanation.
They're saying it's more than likely just misidentified birds or even insects.
The videographer, Nick Corey he said that he'd set off bug bombs prior to shooting this video.
Not only that, but he's said that he's gone out in the middle of the winter, when there's simply no insects around, and he's been able to get similar footage.
Would he be willing to talk to us about it? I would think so.
Okay, so, let's review the videos that we've seen.
I'd really like to get out there and test that 20-second theory, so I'm in for the Heflin case.
Yeah.
I mean, it's a classic case.
I'm in for Heflin.
I think it's completely testable, and I really want to see what the location looks like today.
I don't think anyone has really gone out there and run through the series of everything he said that he did that day to see if they could come up with an explanation.
I really want to put to rest the spiraling rods case.
Yeah.
I think I'm gonna have to go with Bill.
You know, I'm a skeptic when it comes to this type of thing, but this was pretty good video evidence.
It has everything we're looking for.
I mean, we could come up with some creative tests, definitely.
And on top of that, we have great footage and an eyewitness that's willing to meet with us.
So, why don't Lanisha and Devin and I go do the Heflin case? And Jael and Bill and Austin, you guys can go do the spiraling rods.
We'll bring you answers.
You bring us a UFO.
- Done.
- Done deal.
So, guys, Santa Ana, California the site of our new investigation.
This is one of the most classic UFO cases the 1965 Heflin UFO encounter.
According to Heflin's reports, on August 3, 1965, he was making his rounds as a highway maintenance engineer when he looked up and saw something really unusual approaching in the sky.
He was able to take three really quick but sharp photos of the object flying directly overhead.
After he drives several hundred feet more down the road, he gets out of the van, takes the fourth photo, and it shows this dark, mysterious smoke ring that's up in the sky.
There's the site Myford and Walnut.
This is where Heflin said it all happened.
Wow, it looks really different from the photos, right? Now, unfortunately, Rex Heflin passed away, but we do have Dr.
Robert Wood, one of the lead investigators.
He published several papers where he analyzed the whole encounter, and he knew Heflin personally.
Dr.
Wood Ben Hansen.
Ben, how do you do? What were your impressions of Rex Heflin? I thought he was a really solid, ordinary guy who was very truthful, just doing his job.
Can you show me where the UFO would have been sighted? Yeah.
Rex was driving north on Myford Road.
So, he was going this way.
And, as he looked up, why, apparently, this object was in front of him.
And since he always carried a polaroid camera, he picked it up and shot and then went up a couple hundred yards to the north on Myford, hovered for a while, and then poof.
Has your opinion changed since you've dug deeper into the case? That's a really good question because my opinion has changed to be even more confident that these are genuine photographs.
You know, these are polaroids.
It would be very, very difficult, if not impossible, to fake something of that quality from a polaroid.
Well, Dr.
Wood, you've been very, very helpful.
We're gonna get on and try to do some experiments, see what we can come up with.
Coming up on "Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files" Got it.
Lock and load.
Pull! So, because the area where the Heflin photos were originally taken is so developed now, we're gonna move to a nearby testing facility and continue our investigation there.
Here's the site where we can start our experiment.
And here is our vehicle.
We have a similar type of van that Rex used to shoot his photos from.
And that will serve as our vantage point for all of our experiments.
So, Heflin took the first 3 photos in under 20 seconds.
Well, in 1965, they were shooting with this polaroid 101 camera, which works with 3000 Asa film.
Now, I'm familiar with this camera, and I really do find it hard to believe that he was able to capture let alone capture clear and focused images.
I think the biggest struggle you've got is pulling the film and focusing.
You have to look through the viewfinder, focus, take the picture, pull out the film, and try to do this as quickly as possible.
Right.
It's pretty tricky to use, guys.
Our first experiment is pretty straightforward, you guys.
We can use this rc craft to represent our UFO.
Obviously, it doesn't look exactly like the pie-shaped UFO that we saw in the photos, but we just need to get something up in the sky and see if we can focus on it and shoot three photos as quickly as possible.
I will cue you, Devin.
Okay? You can launch the craft.
And then I will cue you to reach back and find your camera.
Let's go.
Let's get this started.
This model polaroid has an image-sized viewfinder.
This means that the photographer has to estimate the distance between the object and the camera.
Now, I find it pretty tricky to do, and it's gonna require two hands.
I know that for sure.
Okay.
You ready, Dev? - I'm ready.
We're go for launch.
- Okay.
Why don't you start motors? - You ready for this? - Ready.
You're under the clock in three Ah! Two One.
Go for it.
Okay.
Get a good grip on it.
Let me adjust this.
Got it.
Okay.
One more.
Third photo.
- Got it.
Got it.
- We're all the way down.
- Done.
- Time.
Bringing it back.
Good job.
Good job.
Great timing.
That was great.
Now, it took 21.
58 seconds for us to take those polaroid pictures.
Now, that's the same amount of time, basically, that Rex said he took his three photos in.
That suggests that Rex may have been telling the truth about this part of the encounter.
Even though it is physically possible to take a series of polaroids quickly, I had a problem because they're not focused or clear.
Well, how do they look? You know what? Let's take a look at them.
That's photo number 1.
Oh, wow! You've got the framing.
Focus was an issue.
It's a little out of focus.
Let's move on to photo number 2.
- Oh, yeah.
- That's a little better.
- Was it hard leaning over? - It definitely is.
Especially having to have both hands on the camera.
And then our third one.
Oh, wow.
Same thing.
Now that we know that the original scenario was at least plausible, we should move on and try to see what was in the sky in 1965.
Let's start with the natural explanation first.
Okay.
All right.
Maybe Rex got it wrong.
Maybe it's just a piece of debris caught in some wind and it's gusted up in front of him, like a paper plate or a pie dish or something.
There you go.
The photo had a very rigid and a shiny surface.
This comes up a lot on the online forums, so I think it's important that we look at it.
I am just not buying that it was something this simple for a natural explanation.
Heads up, Dev.
Yeah, there's no way.
Well, what about Clay pigeons? Something that target shooters use when they go skeet shooting.
- We have them.
- There you go.
I think this is a little bit closer.
Definitely not shiny like in the photograph.
Could be painted.
Exactly.
And we'll be able to send the Clay pigeons in the same direction every single time.
It'll be good for an experiment.
Nice.
And I'll be sitting in the front seat at the vantage point, ready to take the shots.
Okay.
- All right, let's go.
- Let's do it.
- Got it? - Yep.
Lock and load? Lock and load.
Ready, Lanisha? All right, guys.
I'm set over here.
Count me down.
Three Two One Pull! Nice.
Come on over and check it out.
How's it look? The Clay pigeons flew past the truck so quickly that I had a hard time taking one photo, let alone all three.
I figured.
These Clay pigeons were long gone in a matter of four or five seconds.
I, personally, don't believe that he was able to take three photos in that amount of time.
There's no way.
The combination of lighting, camera, and film stock it wasn't designed to shoot action photos, so I don't think that this is it.
I think it's safe to say it was not a Clay pigeon, and I think we should move on.
- Sounds good.
- Yeah.
All right.
Another popular theory for Heflin's photos is that this object could be a hat.
I mean, think about it.
A gust of wind comes and picks it up.
It is Santa Ana, one of the windiest cities in the country.
Think about this spontaneous gust that comes and picks up the object and just carries it a long distance.
It's pretty safe to say that this is a farfetched idea, but it keeps coming up time and time again online.
A hat definitely could have a similar shape, similar to Rex's UFO in his photographs.
But how are we gonna get something that's gonna create enough of a gust that's powerful and strong enough to sustain it? I think I got an idea.
I'll be back.
Okay.
Wow.
This is insane.
V-8 engine mega fan.
To create our own gust of wind and have control over the current, I brought in this high-powered fan.
Place it on the side of the road and point it in the direction that we want our hat to sail.
I'll take this hat, and we'll toss it into the stream, and hopefully, it should push it enough to go up and over the van.
If this doesn't do the trick, I don't know what will.
All right.
- So I'll go back to our vantage point.
- That sounds great.
All right.
Okay, let's fire it up.
- You ready? - We're good.
Crank it up on three Two One Another popular theory is that this object could be a hat.
A gust of wind comes and picks it up and just carries it a long distance.
Are you ready? Crank it up on three Two One Whoo-hoo! - Nice work, guys.
- Yeah? That thing is great.
There's no way that I was able to capture three clear and focused images before the hat flew out of the shot.
I was able to get like one clear, focused shot.
The one photo that you did take does resemble the UFO that Heflin captured in his photo.
From where I was standing, it looked like a hat.
Yeah.
I think that if Heflin would have seen a hat, he would have known.
There is one other theory that we could test, but it would be testing a hoax.
We could literally dangle the hat in the position that we want it to from a mono-filament line and a fishing pole, use forced perspective right in front of the window.
- Sounds like we have our next experiment.
- Yeah, I think so.
So, now we're gonna move on to another hat experiment.
Only this time, we'll have total control over its placement.
Tell me when it comes in frame.
Perfect.
Okay.
Let's move on to position number 2.
Say when.
Go just a few feet more.
Is this okay? There you go.
Nice.
How's the framing on it? Oh, it looks good.
- Got it.
- Got it? We need a big reach on this one.
Final photo.
Can you reel it in a little? Right there.
That's good.
I'm all framed up.
Okay.
Ready? Got it! The photos are pretty impressive.
It shows how an object, even a hat, held out in front of the camera can create a pretty convincing UFO.
The problem with this hoax scenario is that it insinuates that someone else would have been present.
It was very difficult to use the fishing pole and take the photos at the same time.
But you know what? Nobody's ever come forward as an accomplice.
We've tried something that's smaller and closer to camera.
We've seen some problems with that.
Let's go the other direction.
Now we're gonna place something way up in the sky.
Only this time, it's gonna have to be pretty big in order for this to be pulled off.
In Heflin's original report, he said that the craft was and approximately 700 feet away.
Many people theorize that either a large balloon or a blimp could have been the source of UFOs in Heflin's photos.
He either misidentified the blimp or he knew it was a blimp and it all was the result of a hoax.
Using Heflin's dimensions, we've got a 20-foot balloon.
Let's see if it's possible to get this same perspective in the camera frame.
Let's put it straight up, 150 feet and 700 feet from the vantage point, to see if it looks like his photos.
It's looking great.
All right.
It looks great.
Yeah.
Now that we've got the blimp to the right altitude of 150 feet, I'll be towing it behind the S.
U.
V.
Along the predetermined path.
I'm gonna mark out the path where the UFO was photographed using cones and a digital range finder.
I'm gonna go drive to the starting point.
All right.
Stay in touch.
I have my walkie with me.
We'll be at the vantage point.
Okay, guys.
Passing the first marker right now.
They're being followed by a UFO.
Looking good.
Snapping the photo.
Got it.
Coming up on the second marker.
Got it.
Second photo's been snapped.
Final one.
I'm approaching the last mark.
Ufo is heading away from you guys.
- Where is it? - Right there.
Yeah, it looks about the right distance.
Go ahead and snap that last one.
Ben, that was great.
I got a really good feeling about this.
Let's bring her in and check out the photos.
Copy that.
- Hey-hey-hey.
That was awesome.
- Thank you.
- Nice driving.
Nice work.
- Good work.
The framing, size, and color all look good.
Isn't that amazing? I immediately thought to myself, this very well could have been a large object.
I mean, that was Heflin's claim.
Our blimp is similar in shape and metallic in color.
It's possible that maybe what he photographed was some type of metallic craft.
What about that fourth photo, the mysterious smoke ring that appeared after he drove 100 yards down the road? Now, if you look at these photos, there is a strip of power lines in one of them.
Right.
With all this wind we're having, I think it's entirely possible, if this was a blimp, that it maybe ran into one of those and, you know, made of a flammable material, maybe, it went up in flames.
Maybe it exploded and created a smoke ring.
Maybe we should rig this thing up and actually blow it up.
- Let's do it.
- Yeah! All right.
- Let's blow up a balloon.
- You like that? I like it.
Anytime I mention guns or blowing things up, - I know you're there with me.
- Let's do it! What we have here is a DSC a directional spark charge.
And it's gonna detonate in each direction that this is pointing.
And hopefully, our balloon will ignite and create that smoke ring that we need from the original photos.
We'll attach the DSC to the bottom of the blimp, we'll run the line all the way back to the safe vantage point, and we'll detonate from there.
All right.
- All right, we're live right now.
- We're all set.
Let's do it.
Have you ever seen a blimp being exploded and coming down in a fiery flame? I have not.
No, but we're about to.
No? You're all framed up? Yep.
Camera ready.
Ready in three Two One.
Awesome! Look at that thing! This clip was shot in Adam Briscoe captured footage of a ghostly face on the side of a building.
Local legend says that the owner of the property demanded on his deathbed that the property never be sold.
The family sold it anyway, and he has haunted the building ever since.
So, is it fact or faked? The answer coming up.
This clip reportedly shows a ghostly face appearing on the side of a building.
But is it fact or faked? Faked.
Rather than a ghostly apparition, this is a classic case of pareidolia, a phenomenon where our brain sees familiar shapes in the unfamiliar, like Jesus in a piece of toast or a face on a wall.
In the 1960s, they used an aluminum paint coating on the exterior of their blimps.
It's very flammable.
So to re-create the same type of explosion, we're goa use a directional spark charge.
And, hopefully, it will ignite our blimp and leave behind the same type of smoke ring that we saw in Heflin's photo.
You're all framed up? Yep.
Camera ready.
Ready in three Two One.
Awesome! Look at that thing! - How's everyone doing? - Good.
Did you have a good trip? I had a great trip.
So, let's tell you what happened.
Now, remember, Rex Heflin took four photographs of an object that traveled in front of his van.
The first thing we wanted to do was to try and see if we could replicate the time frame he said he took these polaroids in.
As you guys recall, Heflin claimed that he took the first three photos in about 20 seconds.
We decided to base our test around that.
To simulate the UFO, we used a remote-control tricopter.
It didn't look like the UFO, but we were just trying to get something in the sky, something for Lanisha to focus on and see if she could snap the photos.
And it traveled along the same path as the supposed UFO in the original photos.
So this is a test for time, not a test for re-creation? - Right.
- Time, focus.
Just to see if it's even physically possible.
- Right.
- Let's check it out.
- That's the tricopter? - It is the tricopter.
That looks really similar, actually.
I mean, I thought you guys were making a mistake and showing us the original photo.
That's what I thought, as well.
I was able to take all three photos in a little over 21 seconds, which does make Heflin's claim reasonable.
Well, so, we decided to move on and try and find out what exactly was the object in the sky.
So, one thing that we came up with was the possibility that it was a Clay pigeon.
The first photo was fairly easy to nab.
It came into frame snap.
But after that, the Clay pigeon came down.
It was moving too quickly.
We didn't have time to get a second and third photo.
We were pretty quick to rule this one out once we were only able to get one photo off.
We decided, let's try and toss something in the air that might be caught in the wind, like a hat.
The hat looks closer to Heflin's original photo, but just like with the skeets, I had a really hard time getting a shot off before everything went out of frame.
And that's why we believe, if the wind blew it, it would have been coming across the windshield so quickly, you could only probably get one photo off.
Exactly.
But the hat was similar in shape.
So we decided to try and look at maybe the hoax theory.
A lot of skeptics investigating this case believe that he took some fishing line or something similar and hung it on a pole just right in frame.
Now, look at the object itself.
It's pretty clear, it's pretty sharp, and it wasn't even metallic.
Oh, wow.
The sun is so bright out there, it gets a reflection off and makes it look like it has these rigid edges.
One big problem that we ran into with this experiment is that it seemed to take more than one person.
If he was hoaxing this, that means that someone else had to be involved, and no one has ever come forward claiming to be a part of this hoax.
For our next experiment, we decided to take Heflin at his word.
And we put a blimp up in the air that was shaped like a UFO.
We tethered it to the back of the Tahoe and pulled it along the same path as the original photos.
That looks good.
Wow.
Looks pretty good, right? Yeah, that looks really good.
Yeah.
And you definitely got the metallic feel.
So a blimp proves that this was possibly a very large object that was very far away.
But it doesn't prove the mysterious smoke ring.
Let's just assume that what Heflin did see was actually an advertising blimp or a weather balloon.
We thought it's possible maybe this thing got away, hit some power lines, and actually ignited.
The theory is, is that the blimp went up in flames and created this circular smoke ring.
We used explosives to simulate the spark to ignite the blimp.
- Isn't that cool? - Yeah! Yes! Did you see that? Whoa! I love it.
I wish you were there, man.
But look at the side-by-side.
There's no smoke ring.
And the smoke in Heflin's photo is much darker than the smoke from our exploding blimp.
It just doesn't match.
When this experiment didn't yield the results that we were looking for, I decided to go back out in the field and try something a little bit different.
Check this out.
Based on the results from our blimp test, I thought that it might have been more hoaxed.
So I built this rig here to show another way we could have hoaxed it using a completely different method diesel gas, and propane.
Don't try this at home.
Oh, get out of here.
That's like so I used the same materials that they had access to back then a cylindrical pipe, diesel fuel, propane flame, and an air pump.
That black smoke ring will stay in the sky for two minutes.
It is a little bit more complex if we're talking about a hoax scenario.
One more thing worth noting is the El Toro Marine Corps Base was nearby.
Possibly, if this were a real UFO, it was there doing some type of surveillance, or maybe the military was doing their own, you know, experimental testing of craft.
Also, you guys, these men in black who confiscated Heflin's photos, claiming to be from NORAD, maybe they weren't lying.
I mean, if Heflin did have photos of some secret government technology, then maybe they were taken in the name of national security.
So that would explain why the photos were returned to Heflin in 1993.
The technology was no longer top secret.
We were able to show that it could have been a craft that was either close to the vantage point, something was hoaxed, or something that was far away either military or possibly extraterrestrial.
So, really, this case is pretty much still open.
I want to hear what happened in Missouri.
We went to joplin, Missouri, to investigate the spiraling rods phenomenon, also known as skyfish.
Here's what happened.
Guys, we're now in joplin, Missouri, to meet with Nick Corey, the videographer that captured what many believe to be the best documentations of a paranormal phenomenon known as spiraling rods.
The reports of this phenomenon have been spanning decades from all over the world, but many people believe that Nick's footage is undeniable proof of the existence of these spiraling rods.
Nick claims that he was just hanging out at the park, enjoying one of his favorite hobbies, which is observing blue heron, when he realizes that it wasn't just birds he was seeing.
That's when Nick started recording footage of a long, snakelike object moving fluidly through the air.
A lot of paranormal enthusiasts believe rods are inter-dimensional beings.
The theory goes that these are visiting from another universe or dimension that coexists separately alongside ours.
They're transparent and usually can't be seen with the naked eye.
Let's talk to Nick and get his account of what happened that night.
Nick? Hi.
Bill.
Nice to meet you.
Hi.
Nice to meet you.
This is Jael.
And this is Austin.
It's an interesting video you have.
Can you show us where you were when you shot it? Yeah.
This right here is the hot spot, I would call it.
This is where I got most of the skyfish.
So, that's the branch that we see in the video.
Yes.
Have you seen it more than once? Yeah, I've filmed many different times down here.
Are you able to see them with your naked eye? Yes.
How big are they? The biggest one I've seen is about 3 feet long.
Really? Do they only appear at night? I never got a single one in the daytime ever.
So, what makes you think that this is something paranormal occurring and not just insects? The night I shot this, I set up bug bombs to eliminate the possibility of bugs.
And, then, you know, going into 16-degree weather, bugs are not gonna be present during filming in that temperature.
Nick, you've given us a lot of really good information.
- Thank you for your time.
- Thank you.
We're gonna have to really plan these tests carefully.
Yeah.
Let's get to work.
All right.
Let's grab our equipment.
Coming up on "Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files" Release bat.
Oh, my gosh.
Did you see that? We got cicadas, Japanese flying beetles.
Fire slingshot.
We've just spoken with the videographer, Nick Corey, and we're now gonna attempt to replicate the original footage by testing some of the most natural explanations for this sighting.
We're gonna have to wait till it's completely dark to start our experiments.
You know, one of the theories about the "spiraling rods" phenomenon is that it's simply something flying through the air.
What could be flying around at night here through the cold and a bug bomb? Maybe leaves or other debris falling from the trees.
Yeah.
See, I was thinking that.
But when I started watching the video, I realized that these things are moving horizontally - and definitely appear to be moving under their own power.
- Right.
So I think we actually have to rule debris out for this one.
There are a variety of bats that are indigenous to this area, like red and brown bats.
Was some very non-paranormal bat? That could make sense.
Those things are like 21/2 inches and literally fit in the palm of your hand.
That's something we should test.
I've got a contact at an animal sanctuary, and they do rehabilitate bats.
We would need, like, an enclosed area to safely manage them.
Well, while you go wrangle us up some bats, how about Jael and I will finish setting up base camp? We'll actually get that mesh enclosure set up exactly where Nick filmed the spiraling rods.
- See you when you get back.
- Okay.
Nick said that he bug-bombed the area, so for the best results, we're gonna do the same.
Bill's on his way to pick up a couple bats.
Jael and I, we're building this mesh tent for an enclosed environment.
That way, we can film the bats, have it safe, and a controlled area.
Hey, guys.
Hey.
Oh, my gosh! Yes, yes.
It's here.
So, I'd like to introduce Beverly.
Beverly's the founder of an organization called Bat's Landing.
Bat's landing rescues injured and orphaned bats.
And they rehabilitate them, and they let them go back into the wild.
I brought the red bat.
These bats like to be around water, and since we're by a creek here, there's a possibility that this is the kind of bat that would be in this area.
Because the bats are in the wild, there's a safety issue.
Beverly's been vaccinated so she can safely handle them.
Once you're ready with the camera, we're gonna exit the tent, and Beverly will release the bat.
All right, guys.
I'm all framed up.
I'll connect the camera to our monitor so that we can take it outside with us and we can watch and see what our results are.
Beverly, on my cue, if you could release the bat, and then we'll start our experiment, okay? Sounds great.
- Good luck, Beverly.
- Thank you.
Excited about this.
All right, guys, let's set up right here.
You're plugged in? I'm all plugged in.
Beverly, are you in position? Yes.
Okay, so, Austin on the light, Beverly on the cage.
Three Two One Release bat! - There you go.
- Yeah.
All right, guys, I think we've got our shot.
There's our bat.
First thing I notice is that it actually looks like a bat.
Yes, it does.
Right.
And you can tell that it's not elongated, too, at all.
In the original video, you see, like, a series of ridges.
I don't see that in the bat.
I see, like, one wing here.
I'm not sure what I'm looking at.
The object in the original video looks like it's either glowing or it's reflecting light differently.
This object, which is the bat, does not seem to be reflecting light at all.
Obviously, this test did not match the original.
I think it's safe for us to eliminate this theory - and move on to something else.
- Absolutely.
After seeing the result of our bat experiment, it's pretty clear to all of us that whatever Nick got on video that night, it's not a bat.
They're simply too large and easy to recognize.
So, now we're moving on to a theory that this may be a possible hoax.
Here's what I'm thinking.
We're at a possible fishing shot.
What about a slingshot? I mean, lots of fishermen actually use slingshots to attract fish to certain parts of the water, bring them close in to each other.
Well, we've got slingshots, and we've got a tackle box that's filled with reflective rubber worms.
We've got our fishing lure.
We can try any number of these.
One thing I noticed, though, in the video is that it looks like multiple rods are entering the frame from different directions.
So I think we should probably use at least two slingshots.
You want to man the slingshots with me? Absolutely.
Well, I'm gonna get the camera ready and all framed up.
We're gonna use a bait slingshot for our next experiment, and hopefully, we'll be able to replicate our original footage.
I'm gonna aim at the bench.
Okay, I'm gonna aim at our cargo case.
And three Two One Fire slingshot! - How'd that look? - Do you want to take a look? Yeah, I do.
Yeah.
We would like to see it.
The brightness is the same as the original video.
And it definitely confirms what we were thinking.
It's a lot closer to the lens than we thought.
Well, I think that this is our closest experiment so far, but it doesn't have the trails.
What's causing the rigid lines in the rod? Well, we know that Nick set off a bug bomb the night that he shot the video, and we did the same thing.
But look around us.
There are still so many insects everywhere.
So this could just be a bug that's flapping its wings across frame.
Yeah.
I mean, it's hard for me to believe that a bug bomb would literally get rid of all the bugs completely.
To do a thorough investigation, we have to test the theory that it's bugs.
It just makes sense.
Well, we are outdoors.
Why don't we just go on a little bug hunt? Let's get ourselves some bugs.
Yeah.
Let's do it.
All right.
I bet if we flood this tent with light, these bugs are gonna come swarming in.
Then we simply close these flaps, and we're ready to go.
But I think that our best bet to replicate the footage is gonna be to work with bigger flying bugs because I don't think that mesquites or flies are gonna cut it.
We got cicadas, Japanese flying beetles, dragonflies, we got the gypsy moth.
They're all indigenous to this area, and they're in season right now.
So I say we start with finding those.
Yeah.
Sounds good.
Oh, right there, right there.
Right there is a big one.
Let go, little guy.
I don't want to hurt you.
Hey, Bill.
Hold on.
I got one on your back, bud.
Okay.
Get him.
I got it.
We're ready to do this test.
You framed up? Yeah.
We're framed up and rolling.
And three Two One release insect! We're now moving on to another experiment to test the popular theory that spiraling rods are simply insects whose images are distorted by the camera.
And three Two One release insect! Oh, wow.
Okay.
I got that across frame.
Watch closely.
It's coming up.
Right there.
Hey-hey! Wow.
You know what? This test, by far, is the closest we've come to replicating Nick's original "spiraling rods" video.
Here you can see the rodlike shape, but notice on this one, you can see the rods plus these ridges.
I'm pretty pleased with the results, but I thought it was gonna be an exact match, and I don't think that's what we have right now.
There is something else we could do.
Let's go into super night shot because that's gonna slow the shutter and create a motion blur.
Right.
And that may match Nick's original video a little bit better.
All right, well, we'll put it on the right setting - and give it a go.
- Okay.
I'll grab an insect.
And I got one.
Awesome.
Go ahead.
All right, and three Two One release insect! After we grabbed a whole bunch of bugs, we decided to start letting them go, actually, in front of the camera as it's recording.
The only problem was, we didn't get that spiraling effect that we were actually looking for.
But being familiar with these cameras, I just thought, "if I slow down the shutter speed, maybe then we'd get a match.
" Now, you can go into the cameras, and you can put it into slow night shot.
So basically, it slows down the shutter speed so we can capture the image when it's really dim.
And because of the slow shutter speed, it's letting in more light to the image sensor, which creates the glow.
So we shot the experiment again.
Take a look at the results.
Look at that right there! Whoa! Pretty good, huh? Oh, my gosh.
Look at that.
Did you see that? Yep.
You see the ridges on it? Yes.
It's like that elongated snakelike shape that he was describing.
Once we had the shutter speed slow, we couldn't help but get all kinds of these spirals showing on our test footage.
- So it was very controlled.
- Wow.
I think, considering that this is the best and most compelling "spiraling rod" footage I've ever seen, we're really gonna need to find something amazing in order for us to revisit this because I think it's just insects.
And, you know, Nick may have not even known that he was actually capturing bugs, but when it comes down to it, case closed.
Without a doubt, in my mind, you proved that these were insects.
Awesome job.
That's not what I expected to see.
- Yes.
- Yeah.
Well done.
Good work.
- All right.
- Case closed.
How are we? What's going on, man? - What's happening? - Hey.
Do I have some videos to look at today? - Can I go first? - Sure.
An amateur ghost hunter named Benjamin Rios and his girlfriend they were visiting the Menger Hotel in San Antonio, Texas.
Supposedly, it's haunted.
When he went there, he asked for the most haunted room there the Sherman Suite.
But when he gets there, they capture some really unusual footage on his camera.
Check this out.
You see that? Right down the center, an apparition walking across.
Now, wait until it completely leaves.
Ooh, it's like it walked through that hall.
Oh.
It looks like it goes back into the back room.
It completely goes around the corner and exits the room.
Is anybody else seeing what I'm seeing? It looks like the apparition or ghost is missing the whole lower half of its body.
Oh, you know what? I notice that, too.
I'm familiar with this case.
This hotel was built in 1859, and there are many reports of spirits haunting this location.
People have reported that they've seen this ghost carrying a load of towels to a room that she never seems to deliver.
I want to go to this hotel and find out what's going on.
Now you're talking.
You know, the ghost definitely has the transparency that you would think a ghost would have, but it just seems like it would be so easy to do on CG.
Well, I like the place, I love the location, I think that this is pretty easily replicated by CG, but I don't want to totally rule it out.
So why don't we see what else we have? Jael? There were some kids that were playing soccer in a home in Mexico City.
They had been hearing strange sounds all night.
They didn't know where they were coming from.
But suddenly, their game is interrupted by a strange creature that frightens them.
Check out the video.
- Oh! Did you see it? - Wow! It had, like, a pointy hat.
- Yes! Did you see that? - Yeah, it does look like that.
So, they saw this in person, not just on camera? They saw it in person.
These witnesses, they believe that what they saw was the legendary duende, which, in Mexico, translates to gnome.
What's to say that this wasn't just a cat or a chicken? That was actually my first thought when I saw this.
But then I heard these kids, and I'm like, "they sound so genuinely frightened.
" This looks like it could be pretty easily re-created with maybe, like, a puppet or a marionette.
You can see it slightly lifts and floats as it moves across the screen, kind of like a puppet being pulled by a line.
I'd like to look at a case like this.
We haven't approached this subject before.
I think it's fairly easy to replicate.
- Let's see what else we have today first.
- Okay.
All right, guys.
So I have a series of polaroids that are actually evidence of a well-documented and famous UFO case the Rex Heflin UFO encounter.
Now, this case still remains highly influential in the annals of UFO research not just because of the four iconic photos he captured that day, but it also supports the legend of the men in black.
Take a look.
These photos were taken on August 3, 1965, by a guy named Rex Heflin.
The first three photos show a saucer-like object high in the sky.
And the fourth one it depicts a mysterious smoke ring that Heflin said the exiting craft left behind.
Now, the first 3 photos were shot within 20 seconds.
What kind of camera? It was a polaroid 101.
Wouldn't it be kind of a challenge with that camera? It's definitely hard to do because between every single shot, you have to pull the film.
I think that taking three photos in a minute is entirely possible, but I'd like to test 20 seconds.
Is Rex Heflin available for an interview? Unfortunately, he passed away in 2005, but he did work with a team of investigators, so I'm sure we can get one of them to help us out on the case.
So, where do the men in black come in? I know this case well.
Supposedly, in 1965, when these photos surfaced, Rex Heflin says he was visited at his home by two strange men dressed in black suits.
Now, they claimed they were from NORAD, and they encouraged him to turn over the photos, which he did.
Many people believe that the two men in black are part of a massive ongoing government cover-up between extraterrestrial and civilian encounters.
It gets even more strange because supposedly, after 28 years of the photos being gone, mysteriously, they show up in Rex's mailbox.
I love this case.
This is a slam dunk for me, you guys.
It's got great historical background and completely testable.
Well, it sounds like this is one that we should do.
Let's find out what else we have.
All right, guys, I have a video that comes all the way from Sao Paulo, Brazil.
A couple motorists are driving down the highway, and they see something in the sky.
They pull over, take out their camera phones, and start to record what looks like a massive UFO actually creeping out from behind the clouds.
- Whoa! Look at that! - Where? - Right there.
Right in the center of the screen.
- In the middle.
What?! Oh, my gosh.
It looks like a radiant light probe just shoots down towards the earth.
I like the video, but I think there may be kind of a dead giveaway that this is probably CG.
Ben, back up this clip a little bit to right before this truck appears.
Okay.
Go ahead and play.
And watch when the truck enters frame.
Keep going.
One frame.
Gone.
Wow! Oh! And then, after the truck passes, it suddenly reappears.
Wow.
Nice catch, Bill.
Why don't we move on to Bill? For years, there have been reports in the paranormal community of an unusual phenomenon known as spiraling rods, or skyfish.
Now, this video was shot by Nick Corey, who's a naturalist, and he's also a paranormal enthusiast.
He feels that this video is proof of the existence of what he calls the skyfish.
- It did.
- Oh, wow.
Look at that.
Oh, wow! Some people feel that these are possibly inter-dimensional beings that have a way of traveling in and out of our world.
Well, now, the skeptics, on the other hand, they say there's a much more plausible, natural explanation.
They're saying it's more than likely just misidentified birds or even insects.
The videographer, Nick Corey he said that he'd set off bug bombs prior to shooting this video.
Not only that, but he's said that he's gone out in the middle of the winter, when there's simply no insects around, and he's been able to get similar footage.
Would he be willing to talk to us about it? I would think so.
Okay, so, let's review the videos that we've seen.
I'd really like to get out there and test that 20-second theory, so I'm in for the Heflin case.
Yeah.
I mean, it's a classic case.
I'm in for Heflin.
I think it's completely testable, and I really want to see what the location looks like today.
I don't think anyone has really gone out there and run through the series of everything he said that he did that day to see if they could come up with an explanation.
I really want to put to rest the spiraling rods case.
Yeah.
I think I'm gonna have to go with Bill.
You know, I'm a skeptic when it comes to this type of thing, but this was pretty good video evidence.
It has everything we're looking for.
I mean, we could come up with some creative tests, definitely.
And on top of that, we have great footage and an eyewitness that's willing to meet with us.
So, why don't Lanisha and Devin and I go do the Heflin case? And Jael and Bill and Austin, you guys can go do the spiraling rods.
We'll bring you answers.
You bring us a UFO.
- Done.
- Done deal.
So, guys, Santa Ana, California the site of our new investigation.
This is one of the most classic UFO cases the 1965 Heflin UFO encounter.
According to Heflin's reports, on August 3, 1965, he was making his rounds as a highway maintenance engineer when he looked up and saw something really unusual approaching in the sky.
He was able to take three really quick but sharp photos of the object flying directly overhead.
After he drives several hundred feet more down the road, he gets out of the van, takes the fourth photo, and it shows this dark, mysterious smoke ring that's up in the sky.
There's the site Myford and Walnut.
This is where Heflin said it all happened.
Wow, it looks really different from the photos, right? Now, unfortunately, Rex Heflin passed away, but we do have Dr.
Robert Wood, one of the lead investigators.
He published several papers where he analyzed the whole encounter, and he knew Heflin personally.
Dr.
Wood Ben Hansen.
Ben, how do you do? What were your impressions of Rex Heflin? I thought he was a really solid, ordinary guy who was very truthful, just doing his job.
Can you show me where the UFO would have been sighted? Yeah.
Rex was driving north on Myford Road.
So, he was going this way.
And, as he looked up, why, apparently, this object was in front of him.
And since he always carried a polaroid camera, he picked it up and shot and then went up a couple hundred yards to the north on Myford, hovered for a while, and then poof.
Has your opinion changed since you've dug deeper into the case? That's a really good question because my opinion has changed to be even more confident that these are genuine photographs.
You know, these are polaroids.
It would be very, very difficult, if not impossible, to fake something of that quality from a polaroid.
Well, Dr.
Wood, you've been very, very helpful.
We're gonna get on and try to do some experiments, see what we can come up with.
Coming up on "Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files" Got it.
Lock and load.
Pull! So, because the area where the Heflin photos were originally taken is so developed now, we're gonna move to a nearby testing facility and continue our investigation there.
Here's the site where we can start our experiment.
And here is our vehicle.
We have a similar type of van that Rex used to shoot his photos from.
And that will serve as our vantage point for all of our experiments.
So, Heflin took the first 3 photos in under 20 seconds.
Well, in 1965, they were shooting with this polaroid 101 camera, which works with 3000 Asa film.
Now, I'm familiar with this camera, and I really do find it hard to believe that he was able to capture let alone capture clear and focused images.
I think the biggest struggle you've got is pulling the film and focusing.
You have to look through the viewfinder, focus, take the picture, pull out the film, and try to do this as quickly as possible.
Right.
It's pretty tricky to use, guys.
Our first experiment is pretty straightforward, you guys.
We can use this rc craft to represent our UFO.
Obviously, it doesn't look exactly like the pie-shaped UFO that we saw in the photos, but we just need to get something up in the sky and see if we can focus on it and shoot three photos as quickly as possible.
I will cue you, Devin.
Okay? You can launch the craft.
And then I will cue you to reach back and find your camera.
Let's go.
Let's get this started.
This model polaroid has an image-sized viewfinder.
This means that the photographer has to estimate the distance between the object and the camera.
Now, I find it pretty tricky to do, and it's gonna require two hands.
I know that for sure.
Okay.
You ready, Dev? - I'm ready.
We're go for launch.
- Okay.
Why don't you start motors? - You ready for this? - Ready.
You're under the clock in three Ah! Two One.
Go for it.
Okay.
Get a good grip on it.
Let me adjust this.
Got it.
Okay.
One more.
Third photo.
- Got it.
Got it.
- We're all the way down.
- Done.
- Time.
Bringing it back.
Good job.
Good job.
Great timing.
That was great.
Now, it took 21.
58 seconds for us to take those polaroid pictures.
Now, that's the same amount of time, basically, that Rex said he took his three photos in.
That suggests that Rex may have been telling the truth about this part of the encounter.
Even though it is physically possible to take a series of polaroids quickly, I had a problem because they're not focused or clear.
Well, how do they look? You know what? Let's take a look at them.
That's photo number 1.
Oh, wow! You've got the framing.
Focus was an issue.
It's a little out of focus.
Let's move on to photo number 2.
- Oh, yeah.
- That's a little better.
- Was it hard leaning over? - It definitely is.
Especially having to have both hands on the camera.
And then our third one.
Oh, wow.
Same thing.
Now that we know that the original scenario was at least plausible, we should move on and try to see what was in the sky in 1965.
Let's start with the natural explanation first.
Okay.
All right.
Maybe Rex got it wrong.
Maybe it's just a piece of debris caught in some wind and it's gusted up in front of him, like a paper plate or a pie dish or something.
There you go.
The photo had a very rigid and a shiny surface.
This comes up a lot on the online forums, so I think it's important that we look at it.
I am just not buying that it was something this simple for a natural explanation.
Heads up, Dev.
Yeah, there's no way.
Well, what about Clay pigeons? Something that target shooters use when they go skeet shooting.
- We have them.
- There you go.
I think this is a little bit closer.
Definitely not shiny like in the photograph.
Could be painted.
Exactly.
And we'll be able to send the Clay pigeons in the same direction every single time.
It'll be good for an experiment.
Nice.
And I'll be sitting in the front seat at the vantage point, ready to take the shots.
Okay.
- All right, let's go.
- Let's do it.
- Got it? - Yep.
Lock and load? Lock and load.
Ready, Lanisha? All right, guys.
I'm set over here.
Count me down.
Three Two One Pull! Nice.
Come on over and check it out.
How's it look? The Clay pigeons flew past the truck so quickly that I had a hard time taking one photo, let alone all three.
I figured.
These Clay pigeons were long gone in a matter of four or five seconds.
I, personally, don't believe that he was able to take three photos in that amount of time.
There's no way.
The combination of lighting, camera, and film stock it wasn't designed to shoot action photos, so I don't think that this is it.
I think it's safe to say it was not a Clay pigeon, and I think we should move on.
- Sounds good.
- Yeah.
All right.
Another popular theory for Heflin's photos is that this object could be a hat.
I mean, think about it.
A gust of wind comes and picks it up.
It is Santa Ana, one of the windiest cities in the country.
Think about this spontaneous gust that comes and picks up the object and just carries it a long distance.
It's pretty safe to say that this is a farfetched idea, but it keeps coming up time and time again online.
A hat definitely could have a similar shape, similar to Rex's UFO in his photographs.
But how are we gonna get something that's gonna create enough of a gust that's powerful and strong enough to sustain it? I think I got an idea.
I'll be back.
Okay.
Wow.
This is insane.
V-8 engine mega fan.
To create our own gust of wind and have control over the current, I brought in this high-powered fan.
Place it on the side of the road and point it in the direction that we want our hat to sail.
I'll take this hat, and we'll toss it into the stream, and hopefully, it should push it enough to go up and over the van.
If this doesn't do the trick, I don't know what will.
All right.
- So I'll go back to our vantage point.
- That sounds great.
All right.
Okay, let's fire it up.
- You ready? - We're good.
Crank it up on three Two One Another popular theory is that this object could be a hat.
A gust of wind comes and picks it up and just carries it a long distance.
Are you ready? Crank it up on three Two One Whoo-hoo! - Nice work, guys.
- Yeah? That thing is great.
There's no way that I was able to capture three clear and focused images before the hat flew out of the shot.
I was able to get like one clear, focused shot.
The one photo that you did take does resemble the UFO that Heflin captured in his photo.
From where I was standing, it looked like a hat.
Yeah.
I think that if Heflin would have seen a hat, he would have known.
There is one other theory that we could test, but it would be testing a hoax.
We could literally dangle the hat in the position that we want it to from a mono-filament line and a fishing pole, use forced perspective right in front of the window.
- Sounds like we have our next experiment.
- Yeah, I think so.
So, now we're gonna move on to another hat experiment.
Only this time, we'll have total control over its placement.
Tell me when it comes in frame.
Perfect.
Okay.
Let's move on to position number 2.
Say when.
Go just a few feet more.
Is this okay? There you go.
Nice.
How's the framing on it? Oh, it looks good.
- Got it.
- Got it? We need a big reach on this one.
Final photo.
Can you reel it in a little? Right there.
That's good.
I'm all framed up.
Okay.
Ready? Got it! The photos are pretty impressive.
It shows how an object, even a hat, held out in front of the camera can create a pretty convincing UFO.
The problem with this hoax scenario is that it insinuates that someone else would have been present.
It was very difficult to use the fishing pole and take the photos at the same time.
But you know what? Nobody's ever come forward as an accomplice.
We've tried something that's smaller and closer to camera.
We've seen some problems with that.
Let's go the other direction.
Now we're gonna place something way up in the sky.
Only this time, it's gonna have to be pretty big in order for this to be pulled off.
In Heflin's original report, he said that the craft was and approximately 700 feet away.
Many people theorize that either a large balloon or a blimp could have been the source of UFOs in Heflin's photos.
He either misidentified the blimp or he knew it was a blimp and it all was the result of a hoax.
Using Heflin's dimensions, we've got a 20-foot balloon.
Let's see if it's possible to get this same perspective in the camera frame.
Let's put it straight up, 150 feet and 700 feet from the vantage point, to see if it looks like his photos.
It's looking great.
All right.
It looks great.
Yeah.
Now that we've got the blimp to the right altitude of 150 feet, I'll be towing it behind the S.
U.
V.
Along the predetermined path.
I'm gonna mark out the path where the UFO was photographed using cones and a digital range finder.
I'm gonna go drive to the starting point.
All right.
Stay in touch.
I have my walkie with me.
We'll be at the vantage point.
Okay, guys.
Passing the first marker right now.
They're being followed by a UFO.
Looking good.
Snapping the photo.
Got it.
Coming up on the second marker.
Got it.
Second photo's been snapped.
Final one.
I'm approaching the last mark.
Ufo is heading away from you guys.
- Where is it? - Right there.
Yeah, it looks about the right distance.
Go ahead and snap that last one.
Ben, that was great.
I got a really good feeling about this.
Let's bring her in and check out the photos.
Copy that.
- Hey-hey-hey.
That was awesome.
- Thank you.
- Nice driving.
Nice work.
- Good work.
The framing, size, and color all look good.
Isn't that amazing? I immediately thought to myself, this very well could have been a large object.
I mean, that was Heflin's claim.
Our blimp is similar in shape and metallic in color.
It's possible that maybe what he photographed was some type of metallic craft.
What about that fourth photo, the mysterious smoke ring that appeared after he drove 100 yards down the road? Now, if you look at these photos, there is a strip of power lines in one of them.
Right.
With all this wind we're having, I think it's entirely possible, if this was a blimp, that it maybe ran into one of those and, you know, made of a flammable material, maybe, it went up in flames.
Maybe it exploded and created a smoke ring.
Maybe we should rig this thing up and actually blow it up.
- Let's do it.
- Yeah! All right.
- Let's blow up a balloon.
- You like that? I like it.
Anytime I mention guns or blowing things up, - I know you're there with me.
- Let's do it! What we have here is a DSC a directional spark charge.
And it's gonna detonate in each direction that this is pointing.
And hopefully, our balloon will ignite and create that smoke ring that we need from the original photos.
We'll attach the DSC to the bottom of the blimp, we'll run the line all the way back to the safe vantage point, and we'll detonate from there.
All right.
- All right, we're live right now.
- We're all set.
Let's do it.
Have you ever seen a blimp being exploded and coming down in a fiery flame? I have not.
No, but we're about to.
No? You're all framed up? Yep.
Camera ready.
Ready in three Two One.
Awesome! Look at that thing! This clip was shot in Adam Briscoe captured footage of a ghostly face on the side of a building.
Local legend says that the owner of the property demanded on his deathbed that the property never be sold.
The family sold it anyway, and he has haunted the building ever since.
So, is it fact or faked? The answer coming up.
This clip reportedly shows a ghostly face appearing on the side of a building.
But is it fact or faked? Faked.
Rather than a ghostly apparition, this is a classic case of pareidolia, a phenomenon where our brain sees familiar shapes in the unfamiliar, like Jesus in a piece of toast or a face on a wall.
In the 1960s, they used an aluminum paint coating on the exterior of their blimps.
It's very flammable.
So to re-create the same type of explosion, we're goa use a directional spark charge.
And, hopefully, it will ignite our blimp and leave behind the same type of smoke ring that we saw in Heflin's photo.
You're all framed up? Yep.
Camera ready.
Ready in three Two One.
Awesome! Look at that thing! - How's everyone doing? - Good.
Did you have a good trip? I had a great trip.
So, let's tell you what happened.
Now, remember, Rex Heflin took four photographs of an object that traveled in front of his van.
The first thing we wanted to do was to try and see if we could replicate the time frame he said he took these polaroids in.
As you guys recall, Heflin claimed that he took the first three photos in about 20 seconds.
We decided to base our test around that.
To simulate the UFO, we used a remote-control tricopter.
It didn't look like the UFO, but we were just trying to get something in the sky, something for Lanisha to focus on and see if she could snap the photos.
And it traveled along the same path as the supposed UFO in the original photos.
So this is a test for time, not a test for re-creation? - Right.
- Time, focus.
Just to see if it's even physically possible.
- Right.
- Let's check it out.
- That's the tricopter? - It is the tricopter.
That looks really similar, actually.
I mean, I thought you guys were making a mistake and showing us the original photo.
That's what I thought, as well.
I was able to take all three photos in a little over 21 seconds, which does make Heflin's claim reasonable.
Well, so, we decided to move on and try and find out what exactly was the object in the sky.
So, one thing that we came up with was the possibility that it was a Clay pigeon.
The first photo was fairly easy to nab.
It came into frame snap.
But after that, the Clay pigeon came down.
It was moving too quickly.
We didn't have time to get a second and third photo.
We were pretty quick to rule this one out once we were only able to get one photo off.
We decided, let's try and toss something in the air that might be caught in the wind, like a hat.
The hat looks closer to Heflin's original photo, but just like with the skeets, I had a really hard time getting a shot off before everything went out of frame.
And that's why we believe, if the wind blew it, it would have been coming across the windshield so quickly, you could only probably get one photo off.
Exactly.
But the hat was similar in shape.
So we decided to try and look at maybe the hoax theory.
A lot of skeptics investigating this case believe that he took some fishing line or something similar and hung it on a pole just right in frame.
Now, look at the object itself.
It's pretty clear, it's pretty sharp, and it wasn't even metallic.
Oh, wow.
The sun is so bright out there, it gets a reflection off and makes it look like it has these rigid edges.
One big problem that we ran into with this experiment is that it seemed to take more than one person.
If he was hoaxing this, that means that someone else had to be involved, and no one has ever come forward claiming to be a part of this hoax.
For our next experiment, we decided to take Heflin at his word.
And we put a blimp up in the air that was shaped like a UFO.
We tethered it to the back of the Tahoe and pulled it along the same path as the original photos.
That looks good.
Wow.
Looks pretty good, right? Yeah, that looks really good.
Yeah.
And you definitely got the metallic feel.
So a blimp proves that this was possibly a very large object that was very far away.
But it doesn't prove the mysterious smoke ring.
Let's just assume that what Heflin did see was actually an advertising blimp or a weather balloon.
We thought it's possible maybe this thing got away, hit some power lines, and actually ignited.
The theory is, is that the blimp went up in flames and created this circular smoke ring.
We used explosives to simulate the spark to ignite the blimp.
- Isn't that cool? - Yeah! Yes! Did you see that? Whoa! I love it.
I wish you were there, man.
But look at the side-by-side.
There's no smoke ring.
And the smoke in Heflin's photo is much darker than the smoke from our exploding blimp.
It just doesn't match.
When this experiment didn't yield the results that we were looking for, I decided to go back out in the field and try something a little bit different.
Check this out.
Based on the results from our blimp test, I thought that it might have been more hoaxed.
So I built this rig here to show another way we could have hoaxed it using a completely different method diesel gas, and propane.
Don't try this at home.
Oh, get out of here.
That's like so I used the same materials that they had access to back then a cylindrical pipe, diesel fuel, propane flame, and an air pump.
That black smoke ring will stay in the sky for two minutes.
It is a little bit more complex if we're talking about a hoax scenario.
One more thing worth noting is the El Toro Marine Corps Base was nearby.
Possibly, if this were a real UFO, it was there doing some type of surveillance, or maybe the military was doing their own, you know, experimental testing of craft.
Also, you guys, these men in black who confiscated Heflin's photos, claiming to be from NORAD, maybe they weren't lying.
I mean, if Heflin did have photos of some secret government technology, then maybe they were taken in the name of national security.
So that would explain why the photos were returned to Heflin in 1993.
The technology was no longer top secret.
We were able to show that it could have been a craft that was either close to the vantage point, something was hoaxed, or something that was far away either military or possibly extraterrestrial.
So, really, this case is pretty much still open.
I want to hear what happened in Missouri.
We went to joplin, Missouri, to investigate the spiraling rods phenomenon, also known as skyfish.
Here's what happened.
Guys, we're now in joplin, Missouri, to meet with Nick Corey, the videographer that captured what many believe to be the best documentations of a paranormal phenomenon known as spiraling rods.
The reports of this phenomenon have been spanning decades from all over the world, but many people believe that Nick's footage is undeniable proof of the existence of these spiraling rods.
Nick claims that he was just hanging out at the park, enjoying one of his favorite hobbies, which is observing blue heron, when he realizes that it wasn't just birds he was seeing.
That's when Nick started recording footage of a long, snakelike object moving fluidly through the air.
A lot of paranormal enthusiasts believe rods are inter-dimensional beings.
The theory goes that these are visiting from another universe or dimension that coexists separately alongside ours.
They're transparent and usually can't be seen with the naked eye.
Let's talk to Nick and get his account of what happened that night.
Nick? Hi.
Bill.
Nice to meet you.
Hi.
Nice to meet you.
This is Jael.
And this is Austin.
It's an interesting video you have.
Can you show us where you were when you shot it? Yeah.
This right here is the hot spot, I would call it.
This is where I got most of the skyfish.
So, that's the branch that we see in the video.
Yes.
Have you seen it more than once? Yeah, I've filmed many different times down here.
Are you able to see them with your naked eye? Yes.
How big are they? The biggest one I've seen is about 3 feet long.
Really? Do they only appear at night? I never got a single one in the daytime ever.
So, what makes you think that this is something paranormal occurring and not just insects? The night I shot this, I set up bug bombs to eliminate the possibility of bugs.
And, then, you know, going into 16-degree weather, bugs are not gonna be present during filming in that temperature.
Nick, you've given us a lot of really good information.
- Thank you for your time.
- Thank you.
We're gonna have to really plan these tests carefully.
Yeah.
Let's get to work.
All right.
Let's grab our equipment.
Coming up on "Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files" Release bat.
Oh, my gosh.
Did you see that? We got cicadas, Japanese flying beetles.
Fire slingshot.
We've just spoken with the videographer, Nick Corey, and we're now gonna attempt to replicate the original footage by testing some of the most natural explanations for this sighting.
We're gonna have to wait till it's completely dark to start our experiments.
You know, one of the theories about the "spiraling rods" phenomenon is that it's simply something flying through the air.
What could be flying around at night here through the cold and a bug bomb? Maybe leaves or other debris falling from the trees.
Yeah.
See, I was thinking that.
But when I started watching the video, I realized that these things are moving horizontally - and definitely appear to be moving under their own power.
- Right.
So I think we actually have to rule debris out for this one.
There are a variety of bats that are indigenous to this area, like red and brown bats.
Was some very non-paranormal bat? That could make sense.
Those things are like 21/2 inches and literally fit in the palm of your hand.
That's something we should test.
I've got a contact at an animal sanctuary, and they do rehabilitate bats.
We would need, like, an enclosed area to safely manage them.
Well, while you go wrangle us up some bats, how about Jael and I will finish setting up base camp? We'll actually get that mesh enclosure set up exactly where Nick filmed the spiraling rods.
- See you when you get back.
- Okay.
Nick said that he bug-bombed the area, so for the best results, we're gonna do the same.
Bill's on his way to pick up a couple bats.
Jael and I, we're building this mesh tent for an enclosed environment.
That way, we can film the bats, have it safe, and a controlled area.
Hey, guys.
Hey.
Oh, my gosh! Yes, yes.
It's here.
So, I'd like to introduce Beverly.
Beverly's the founder of an organization called Bat's Landing.
Bat's landing rescues injured and orphaned bats.
And they rehabilitate them, and they let them go back into the wild.
I brought the red bat.
These bats like to be around water, and since we're by a creek here, there's a possibility that this is the kind of bat that would be in this area.
Because the bats are in the wild, there's a safety issue.
Beverly's been vaccinated so she can safely handle them.
Once you're ready with the camera, we're gonna exit the tent, and Beverly will release the bat.
All right, guys.
I'm all framed up.
I'll connect the camera to our monitor so that we can take it outside with us and we can watch and see what our results are.
Beverly, on my cue, if you could release the bat, and then we'll start our experiment, okay? Sounds great.
- Good luck, Beverly.
- Thank you.
Excited about this.
All right, guys, let's set up right here.
You're plugged in? I'm all plugged in.
Beverly, are you in position? Yes.
Okay, so, Austin on the light, Beverly on the cage.
Three Two One Release bat! - There you go.
- Yeah.
All right, guys, I think we've got our shot.
There's our bat.
First thing I notice is that it actually looks like a bat.
Yes, it does.
Right.
And you can tell that it's not elongated, too, at all.
In the original video, you see, like, a series of ridges.
I don't see that in the bat.
I see, like, one wing here.
I'm not sure what I'm looking at.
The object in the original video looks like it's either glowing or it's reflecting light differently.
This object, which is the bat, does not seem to be reflecting light at all.
Obviously, this test did not match the original.
I think it's safe for us to eliminate this theory - and move on to something else.
- Absolutely.
After seeing the result of our bat experiment, it's pretty clear to all of us that whatever Nick got on video that night, it's not a bat.
They're simply too large and easy to recognize.
So, now we're moving on to a theory that this may be a possible hoax.
Here's what I'm thinking.
We're at a possible fishing shot.
What about a slingshot? I mean, lots of fishermen actually use slingshots to attract fish to certain parts of the water, bring them close in to each other.
Well, we've got slingshots, and we've got a tackle box that's filled with reflective rubber worms.
We've got our fishing lure.
We can try any number of these.
One thing I noticed, though, in the video is that it looks like multiple rods are entering the frame from different directions.
So I think we should probably use at least two slingshots.
You want to man the slingshots with me? Absolutely.
Well, I'm gonna get the camera ready and all framed up.
We're gonna use a bait slingshot for our next experiment, and hopefully, we'll be able to replicate our original footage.
I'm gonna aim at the bench.
Okay, I'm gonna aim at our cargo case.
And three Two One Fire slingshot! - How'd that look? - Do you want to take a look? Yeah, I do.
Yeah.
We would like to see it.
The brightness is the same as the original video.
And it definitely confirms what we were thinking.
It's a lot closer to the lens than we thought.
Well, I think that this is our closest experiment so far, but it doesn't have the trails.
What's causing the rigid lines in the rod? Well, we know that Nick set off a bug bomb the night that he shot the video, and we did the same thing.
But look around us.
There are still so many insects everywhere.
So this could just be a bug that's flapping its wings across frame.
Yeah.
I mean, it's hard for me to believe that a bug bomb would literally get rid of all the bugs completely.
To do a thorough investigation, we have to test the theory that it's bugs.
It just makes sense.
Well, we are outdoors.
Why don't we just go on a little bug hunt? Let's get ourselves some bugs.
Yeah.
Let's do it.
All right.
I bet if we flood this tent with light, these bugs are gonna come swarming in.
Then we simply close these flaps, and we're ready to go.
But I think that our best bet to replicate the footage is gonna be to work with bigger flying bugs because I don't think that mesquites or flies are gonna cut it.
We got cicadas, Japanese flying beetles, dragonflies, we got the gypsy moth.
They're all indigenous to this area, and they're in season right now.
So I say we start with finding those.
Yeah.
Sounds good.
Oh, right there, right there.
Right there is a big one.
Let go, little guy.
I don't want to hurt you.
Hey, Bill.
Hold on.
I got one on your back, bud.
Okay.
Get him.
I got it.
We're ready to do this test.
You framed up? Yeah.
We're framed up and rolling.
And three Two One release insect! We're now moving on to another experiment to test the popular theory that spiraling rods are simply insects whose images are distorted by the camera.
And three Two One release insect! Oh, wow.
Okay.
I got that across frame.
Watch closely.
It's coming up.
Right there.
Hey-hey! Wow.
You know what? This test, by far, is the closest we've come to replicating Nick's original "spiraling rods" video.
Here you can see the rodlike shape, but notice on this one, you can see the rods plus these ridges.
I'm pretty pleased with the results, but I thought it was gonna be an exact match, and I don't think that's what we have right now.
There is something else we could do.
Let's go into super night shot because that's gonna slow the shutter and create a motion blur.
Right.
And that may match Nick's original video a little bit better.
All right, well, we'll put it on the right setting - and give it a go.
- Okay.
I'll grab an insect.
And I got one.
Awesome.
Go ahead.
All right, and three Two One release insect! After we grabbed a whole bunch of bugs, we decided to start letting them go, actually, in front of the camera as it's recording.
The only problem was, we didn't get that spiraling effect that we were actually looking for.
But being familiar with these cameras, I just thought, "if I slow down the shutter speed, maybe then we'd get a match.
" Now, you can go into the cameras, and you can put it into slow night shot.
So basically, it slows down the shutter speed so we can capture the image when it's really dim.
And because of the slow shutter speed, it's letting in more light to the image sensor, which creates the glow.
So we shot the experiment again.
Take a look at the results.
Look at that right there! Whoa! Pretty good, huh? Oh, my gosh.
Look at that.
Did you see that? Yep.
You see the ridges on it? Yes.
It's like that elongated snakelike shape that he was describing.
Once we had the shutter speed slow, we couldn't help but get all kinds of these spirals showing on our test footage.
- So it was very controlled.
- Wow.
I think, considering that this is the best and most compelling "spiraling rod" footage I've ever seen, we're really gonna need to find something amazing in order for us to revisit this because I think it's just insects.
And, you know, Nick may have not even known that he was actually capturing bugs, but when it comes down to it, case closed.
Without a doubt, in my mind, you proved that these were insects.
Awesome job.
That's not what I expected to see.
- Yes.
- Yeah.
Well done.
Good work.
- All right.
- Case closed.