The Teesdale Inheritance
This a very obscure and very little known episode of the neverending UFO saga which deserves special mention.
On the March 11-17 1988 issue of the Nouvel Observateur, a large format Paris weekly, appeared a very interesting advertisement.
This a very obscure and very little known episode of the neverending UFO saga which deserves special mention.
On the March 11-17 1988 issue of the Nouvel Observateur, a large format Paris weekly, appeared a very interesting advertisement.
A London-based law firm, the trustees of "the estate of A.P. Teesdale, Esq. of Durham County in England", was appealing for "serious organizations" that may be able to meet the requirements of the gentleman’s will. These requirements were "the establisment and the maintenance of relationships with extraterrestrial beings".
We don’t know how many persons sent their credentials to the P.O. Box address included but three persons were contacted for the final selection: a French UFO investigator, Professor François Raulin, a much distinguished chemist, and Claude Vorilhon, founder of the Raelian UFO cult.
The trustees identified themselves as the law firm of Theard, Theard, Smith & Theard, 31 Sussex Mansions, Old Brompton Road, London SW7 and summoned the finalists to one the best (and most expensive) restaurants in Paris, right next to the Notre Dame Cathedral. Here a commision made up twelve persons awaited the candidates: four representives of Theard & Co, four French lawyers, a man who was introduced as a specialist in computer science, a physicist, an engineer and a Roman Catholic priest. Both the engineer and the priest denied any connection with both the late Mr Teesdale and Theard & Co: they had been just invited to dinner. A much lavish dinner was served and then the man who identified himself as "Mr Bates" started summarizing the requirements of the late Mr Teesdale’s will. He also read the so-called "confession", an incredible piece of writing which was allegedly part of the will.
Mr. Teesdale related how in 1916, when he was barely seventeen, had run away from home and cheated on his age to enlist in the Army. He was sent to the Flanders and shortly thereafter was caught in the explosion of a shell. While he was laying dazed in the mud, he heard a voice who assured him that he was not going to die on that day. This voice also told him that he was to be given a "clue" and his duty was to "place this in the hands of your best scientists". Mr Teesdale awoke, practically uninjured with an "object" in his hand. What this object was we are not told.
Of course he forgot about his mission and in 1940 he found himself in the Army and on the Continent again, this time racing against time to reach evacuation beach at Dunkirk. While boarding a boat a German plane strafed and bombed the area. While an explosion was going on, Teesdale again heard the aforementioned voice, scolding him for not fulfilling his duty. When he said that the "object" failed to impress anyone he showed it to, he was said that he was to be given a "second clue". Surely this time he was bound to be believed. When he awoke he painfully discovered that this time he had not been so lucky, since he had been gravely injured in a leg. And now there were two "mystery objects" to be sure.
Back in England, it was discovered that his injury was worse than first thought. After leaving the hospital he was assigned to sedentary duties and when the threat of a German invasion evaporated, he was invalided out.
Of course after the war he desperately tried to put the two objects in the hands of the "best scientists", but each time he was turned away. Of course nobody believed him. When he died, his mission unfulfilled, he left a "considerable sum" to be handed over to whoever was deemed by his trustees to be the best suited to fulfill the mission.
After this incredibly story was told, each one of the candidates was interviewed and his curriculum vitae examined. There was little doubt that Professor Raulin was the most obvious choice: he was a much respected scientist, he had direct access to extremely advanced equipment, he had academic connections all over the world, he had even spoken openly in favour of life outside Earth.
Yet Vorilhon was named the winner. He was handed over a large cryogenic container, similar to ones used to transport bull semen, which was said to contain the two clues. Raulin offered his help in analyzing the objects and Vorilhon gladly accepted it. A few days later Raulin phoned the UFO investigator to see if he had heard from Vorilhon, which seemed to have disappeared. Of course he hadn’t. Three months later both two were contacted on behalf of Vorilhon by a member of the Raelian organization, Dominique Renaudin.
There was no trace of the inheritance, not a single penny. Inquiries made by the London branch of the Raelians failed to discover any trace of the trustees. He declined to comment about the content of the cryogenic container. Raulin and the researcher mobilized their English contacts and then boarded a plane for London, determined to get to the bottom of the fiasco.
There has never been a registered law firm by the name of Theard, Theard, Smith & Theard, neither in London nor anywhere in England. Even worse, there wasn’t even a 31 Sussex Mansions: the uneven numbers stopped at 29. Further research failed to turn out any trace of a Teesdale family in County Durham.
It had all been a colossal fraud. But who were the perpetrators? Your answer is as good as mine.
There is little doubt that they were based in England but picked out France willingly as the seat of their "theatrical performance" as Vallee called it. The four persons impersonating the Theard & Co envoys all spoke good French but were native Englishmen (not Americans) without any doubt. They also knew the British UFO scene quite well and surely knew that organizations like BUFORA would have made extensive investigations before being dragged into the picture and it would have been all too easy for a London BUFORA member to pay a quick visit to the nonexistent offices of Theard & Co. They also knew very well the French UFO scene, which is one of the most lively in the world, ranging from contactees like Claude Vourilhon to extremely critical investigators like Aimee Michel, not to mention the GEPAN government program. They also had above average means: they had very high quality stationery printed out, paid a lavish dinner for fifteen persons in one of Paris’ most exclusive restaurants, were allegedly quartered in a luxury hotel and so on.
And what was their motivation? If they just aimed at making fun of Vorilhon why involving a respected academic like Professor Raulin? Why inviting an engineer and a priest without any links to the UFO or paranormal scene just to witness their performance?
The mystery lingers on.
Why would someone put such
Why would someone put such an elborate hoax together if they don’t try to capitalise on it somehow?
Could the agenda not have
Could the agenda not have been to raise the profile and create publicity and intrigue for the the Raelian Cult? Just a thought.
The Raelians have long been
The Raelians have long been suspected of being more than they look. For example in the early days of the sect Vorilhon had access to very large sums of money. Nobody knows where the money came from: Vorilhon was impecunious to say the least at the time and he had few followers, none of which could be described as affluent. When they announced of having succeeded in cloning the first human embryo this piece of news was picked up by press agencies and medias all the over the world, from Aberdeen to Osaka. We are not talking about Sunday tabloids but respectable and influential medias.
It turned out to be unsubstantiated to say the least but Raelians had more than a few days of glory. Since every day some individual or group makes a statement as bold and carrying as much shock value as the Raelians’ and they are not deemed worthy of the slightest attention, we are left to wonder how did they manage to get their story on every single newspaper. That the medias are easily manipulated (if not downright controlled) is no wonder at all: the problem is why this group of "weirdoes" were deemed worthy of so much attention.
Also the choice of the three finalists, a very well-known contactee, a UFO researcher and a respectable and open-minded academic, is suspicious to say the least. The presence of two witnesses apparently picked at random is also suspicious: perhaps they were the final targets, perhaps they were hidden observers, perhaps they were simply hired extras put there to give an helping hand making the whole even more incredible.
The Teesdale Inheritance episode is very little known even inside the UFO community: it has never appeared on any mainstream media and is little known outside of French literature. The Raelians perhaps served as willing accomplices but recieved no pubblicity at all. And Ian is right in pointing out "why?". And that’s the problem with many cases involving UFOs, starting with the Rendlesham Forest case.
It does not make any sense yet it really happened.
I vaguely recall (and looked
I vaguely recall (and looked it up again on Google) the raelians involvement in clonaid and their statement to the press on their success in creating the first human clone – a statement that was repeated in many papers besides the usual tabloid press, probably due to a peak of interest in the subject by the media at the time, but which evaporated into nothing – I guess false claims like this aren’t punishable, yet it did prove a lack of thorough journalism into the Raelian claims.
I haven’t heard this tale before, but it is an intriguing anecdote and a mystery as to why the Raelians would be involved – lack of any factual information seems to indicate a hoax or a an attempt to gain publicity – which seems to have failed if the story stayed within the french press.
The Raelian movement is yet
The Raelian movement is yet another mystery. As I’ve related before Vorilhon, despite coming from a destitute background, seemed to have large sums of money available when he founded the movement back in 1974. Differently from Scientology he didn’t seem to focus on gaining wealthy followers to his cult and, in fact, most if not all his early followers can be described as "impecunious". Money and organization was what set Raelism aside from the myriad of UFO "cults" sprouting up in the ’70s like mushrooms after an August thunderstorm.
The case of the Unification Church, also known as the Moonites, whose founder has always been suspected (probably rightly) of having links with US agencies like CIA and NSA, has led some (including me) to suspect that Vorilhon may have been helped in his effort by one of France’s many "intelligence" agencies, like SCSSI and RG.
Vorilhon, apart from money, has always enjoyed widespread media coverage. There are hundreds of persons wearing a flowing white gown making claims every bit as wild as Vorilhon’s, so why just him? He also enjoyed some level of political protection: you may be familiar with the present "psychedelic" Raelian symbol but originally it was a swastika inside a maghen (David’s star or shield). It was changed recently in a PR effort (namely to open a church or "embassy" in Israel). As you may well know in most European countries (and France is one of them) displaying a swastika is considered a felony, to the point that even militaria collectors have to be careful when displaying their merchandise at a fair. Yet Vorilhon and his followers could always display openly their symbol without anyone objecting in the least.
If you are asking yourself why an intelligency agency would waste its time on a UFO cult remember that the Soviet government spent countless roubles in investigating telekynesis and ESP or simply type "COINTELPRO" in any search engine.