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catalogue for 15 October, it is listed as item 54: "a superb life- owner of the guest house "The Watchers" in Polperro, Cornwall, size crystal carving of a human skull", length 174 mm, and who in a 1999 interview stated that in the early 1930s Mitchell- described thus: "the lower jaw separate, the details are correctly Hedges and his daughter stayed at the house for several months rendered and the carver has given the orbits, zygomatic arches and had in their possession a most unusual crystal skull, which and mastoid processes the similitude of their natural forms, they kept in a cupboard in one of the rooms they rented. glabellar-occipital". It refers to the fact that "this magnificent Let us therefore assume, as a working hypothesis, that Mitchell- skull" was the subject of "an interesting article" in Man in July Hedges obtained the skull at some point before the 1943 1936. Mitchell-Hedges apparently acquired it for £400 (Sotheby's auction—as he himself claimed. The question then still remains: has lost the details of the sale), and in his letter dated 22 how? We know that he never wanted to reveal how he got the December 1943 to his brother, he mentions: "You possibly saw in skull—which by default means there is some aspect involved that the papers that I have actually acquired a Crystal Skull formerly would be hard to explain. in the Sydney Burney collection." The auctioning of the skull that would be valued at more than Was Mitchell-Hedges a spy for British intelligence? $500,000 by the mid-1970s is a curious episode in its history. An analysis of his autobiography reveals—very much like a For sceptics, it is all the evidence they need that both father and polygraph test—one area of his life which Mitchell-Hedges lied daughter lied about how the skull arrived in their possession. But about. He states how in 1913, when working for Mike why would Mitchell-Hedges have tried to cover up that he Meyerowitz, a diamond merchant in New York, he announced bought the skull at a public auction, instead that he was leaving for Mexico. By claiming that he would never reveal how he November 1913, he had finally made it to a acquired it? tiny village a few miles inside the Mexican Legal experts have noted that, under border, where he was taken captive by contemporary law, by purchasing the skull at General Pancho Villa's troops on suspicion auction there could be no contest over its of espionage and taken to the general ownership: Mitchell-Hedges was the himself. rightful owner, regardless of how he'd This account suggests that Mitchell- acquired it. Hence, the true importance of Analysts have Hedges must have been one of the most the auction might have been totally missed argued that during unfortunate men ever. But his Fortune soon y the sceptics. It is true that Mitchell- . . changed, for the general believed Mitchell- Hedges began to speak about the skull only this period Hedges when he said he was not a spy. in the late 1940s, but, rather than this being Mitchell-Hedges Indeed, next he became a member of Villa's evidence that he acquired it in 1943, it might be evidence that from 1943 onwards he felt liberated and able to speak openly about it, knowing that he now legally ossessed it and no one could take it away from him. Furthermore, the sceptics have failed to address—let alone answer—how Burney gained possession of the skull. Digby, in 1936, said he did not know and all he could do was trace the ossession of the skull back to January 1934—a decade after Anna Mitchell- Hedges allegedly found it in Lubaantun. Anna Mitchell-Hedges (who died in 2007) always maintained that Burney only had the skull on loan Mexican Revolution. from her father until he could pay off a debt he owed Burney. Analysts have argued that during this period Mitchell-Hedges The sceptics' argument—"If it was indeed a loan, why didn't he was lying—a prime attribute for any intelligence operative. Villa just pay it back?"—doesn't work because, even if it was a sale, fought 15 battles while Mitchell-Hedges was allegedly with him, Mitchell-Hedges could have arranged this directly with his friend yet in Danger My Ally not one of these campaigns is mentioned. army, for a period of 10 months. Already the story is somewhat unbelievable, but some people do have a run of bad luck and Mitchell-Hedges may have suffered from a form of Stockholm syndrome. Then again— thinking the impossible—could he have gone to Mexico to be captured and to spend as much time, as closely as possible, with the great Mexican revolutionary? All this would require is to accept that Mitchell-Hedges was not a man out for adventure—an Indiana Jones—but, instead, a James Bond, sent by his government to provide an insider's perspective on the was lying— a prime attribute for any intelligence operative. rather than buy the skull through auction. Why leave out details of events with which his readership would According to Anna Mitchell-Hedges, what really happened was have been more than impressed? that Burney had inexplicably put the crystal skull up for auction. Still, everyone is agreed that Mitchell-Hedges was truthful Unable to contact Burney, Mike arose the next day at 5.00 am and when he said that he had personally known Villa, a conclusion travelled to London to retrieve his property. Sotheby's informed based on his assessment of the general in his book. Mitchell- him that the vendor was Sydney Burney's son; and when they Hedges does mention one battle, a dawn attack on Laredo, Texas, refused to withdraw the item from sale, Mitchell-Hedges realised | whereby Mitchell-Hedges personally saved Villa and his men. that the easiest way of regaining his property was to purchase it | However, the entire incident is a lie: there never was a battle at back. In this scenario, the fact that the auction filled the legal Laredo. So why did Mitchell-Hedges make this false claim, loophole of ironing out the ownership of the skull is incidental. which anyone could quickly discredit and prove he was a liar? However, probably the best evidence that Mitchell-Hedges As to how he left Villa's army, there sits another lie. In the possessed the skull prior to 1943 comes from Patsy Wilcox, chapter of his autobiography titled "Pancho Villa's Prisoner", owner of the guest house "The Watchers" in Polperro, Cornwall, who in a 1999 interview stated that in the early 1930s Mitchell- Hedges and his daughter stayed at the house for several months and had in their possession a most unusual crystal skull, which they kept in a cupboard in one of the rooms they rented. Let us therefore assume, as a working hypothesis, that Mitchell- Hedges obtained the skull at some point before the 1943 auction—as he himself claimed. The question then still remains: how? We know that he never wanted to reveal how he got the skull—which by default means there is some aspect involved that would be hard to explain. Analysts have argued that during this period Mitchell-Hedges was lying— a prime attribute foe o---- Pa operative. JUNE — JULY 2008 NEXUS +57 for any intelligence www.nexusmagazine.com