- Ron Ruiz is selling this hunk of purported
UFO crash debris for $69,000
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- `Alien' debris is just slag, skeptic
says
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- By Jim Erickson The Arizona Daily Star
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- Ron Ruiz says the potato-sized gray and
green rock he holds in his hands came from a liquid-hulled alien spaceship
that crashed in St. Joseph, Mo., in 1947.
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- Ruiz, owner of the Oro Valley-based Stone
People Products, is selling the hunk of alleged UFO crash debris at one
of the Tucson gem and mineral shows for $69,000.
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- About two dozen smaller pieces are available
for $100 a gram, and at least four small fragments already have been sold,
he said.
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- ``It seems like an awfully high amount,
but there is very little of it,'' Ruiz said from a booth at the Congress
Street Expo, 710 W. Congress St.
-
- But Tucson astronomer and self-proclaimed
skeptic James McGaha says the ``debris'' looks a lot like slag, the fused
refuse separated from a metal during the smelting process.
-
- McGaha examined the rocks and supporting
documentation supplied by Ruiz, and he concluded that ``they are making
very extraordinary claims with no evidence to support those claims.''
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- ``The sad thing is that there are nutty
UFO people out there that might buy it for $69,000,'' said McGaha, chairman
of Tucson Skeptics and a consultant for CSICOP, the Committee for Scientific
Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal.
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- ``There have been lots of scams in ufology,
but this is the first time I've ever seen a piece of a UFO for sale in
my 25 years of investigating UFOs,'' he said.
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- ``Lots of people have shown up at conferences
saying `This is a piece of a UFO.' But it's never been for sale, and usually
they won't even let you touch the stuff - or they show you pictures and
say it's locked away in a vault somewhere.''
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- According to Ruiz and the paperwork he
provided, a Missouri farmer and his wife were eating breakfast one morning
in July 1947 when they saw a glowing object flying toward them from the
east.
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- The ``glowing molten mass'' moved horizontally
at about 20 mph, shearing treetops and setting them ablaze. Then it came
to a dead stop and fell 30 or 40 feet to the ground.
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- It took three days for the crashed spaceship
to cool down so the farmer could get close to it.
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- He decided to bury his find, rather than
report it to authorities, because he wanted to avoid publicity.
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- It remained buried until 1996, when the
farmer's son inspected his land for damage from a recent flood.
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- He found green and gray material sticking
up from the mud, then remembered what his parents had told him years earlier
about burying a flying saucer on the farm.
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- The son collected the ``debris,'' which
later came into the hands of New Mexico gemologist David Shoemaker. Ruiz
said he obtained his samples from Shoemaker.
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- In biographical material supplied by
Ruiz, Shoemaker is described as a jeweler, photographer, lecturer, humorist
and dealer of metaphysical stones.
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- ``In metaphysical circles Mr. Shoemaker
is known as a Half-ling Wizard who is beloved by the spirits,'' the biographical
profile states. ``He is also a friend of the Jaguar King, Maker of the
Bear Fetish and Keeper of the Dream.''
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- Ruiz said he had samples of the gray
and green rock analyzed at two laboratories. The results convinced him
that the material is UFO debris.
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- Specifically, the Missouri debris is
part of an alien mother ship, Ruiz said.
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- Before it disintegrated, the mother ship
sent out an escape pod that crashed in Roswell, N.M., in July 1947, he
said.
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- ``These are from the mother ship,'' Ruiz
said, pointing to the polished shards spread on the table in front of him.
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- He provided results from a test at the
Excalibur Mineral Co. in Peekskill, N.Y. The lab concluded that the gray
vesicular (bubbly) mass is mostly quartz and cristobalite, a mineral identical
in composition to quartz.
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- ``Based on the vesicular habit, it is
probable that the material is residual glass/ash from a fire or similar
process,'' the report states.
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- Ruiz said the results support the crash-and-burn
UFO scenario.
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- McGaha said the findings indicate the
``debris'' is simply slag or a slaglike material.
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- ``I think they are grossly deceiving
the public and playing to the gullibility of people when they sell material
that is fairly obviously not material from a UFO crash,'' he said.
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- ``If you thought you had a piece of a
real UFO, it would be priceless.
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- ``It wouldn't be $100 per gram,'' McGaha
said. ``You wouldn't cut it up into little pieces and sell it.''
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- The truth is out there...out there on
the Web, that is. Learn more about the "fantastic story" of CSD
- <http://www.wehug.com/crashsitedebris.htmlCrash Site Debris.
-
- http://www.azstarnet.com/public/dnews/0205n04.html
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