Believers in the power of the Mitchell-Hedges Crystal Skull - Beware! Although they are looking at a truly magnificent ancient artifact, who origin is unknown, the age of the artifact is unknown, and the purpose of the artifact is still unknown -truly, they are mysteries of the past in a modern era. Yet, Anna Mitchell Hedges continue her never ending line of "last showings of the Mitchell-Hedges skull" throughout Ontario and the United States.

During the course of our research, that was prompted after I read the autobiography of a "Mike" Mitchell-Hedges, the following discoveries were made.

The crystal skull was NOT found in 1924, 1925, 1926, or 1927 by Anna Mitchell-Hedges, the adopted daughter of Mike Mitchell-Hedges as they would like everyone to believe! The skull was actually bought by Mitchell-Hedges in 1943 at an auction at Sotheby's in London, England and was purchased from one Sidney Burney. This was confirmed by notes found at the British Museum, who had someone there to purchase the skull, but the Museum could only go as high as 340 English Pound Notes - and Burney sold the skull to Mitchell-Hedges for 400 British pound notes.

Evidence to further support the discovery of the skull did not take place during the British Expedition, there are no records of the find of the Crystal Skull, nor were there any photographs of the Crystal Skull or of the adopted daughter of Mike Mitchell-Hedges in any of the photographs that were taken on that expedition. In fact Sidney Burney and people who were actually on the expedition claimed from day one, that Mitchell-Hedges did not find the skull in Lubaatun. Mitchell-Hedges himself, according to friends, family and associates did not start talking about the skull until 1943 after the skull had been sold by Burney at the auction.

The first time that the Burney Skull was mentioned was in 1936. During the lectures, seminars, and speaking engagements that Mitchell-Hedges gave between from the time he returned from Lubaatun until 1943 just prior to the sale of the Burney Skull - he never mentioned the Skull of Doom!

Why did Mitchell-Hedges create this incredible story? Well, the motive behind the act was the libel suit he lost against a newspaper the Daily Express in 1928. In his own words, from his autobiography entitled, "Danger My Ally" which was published in 1955:

• "I left the court with my mind in a whirl. I had been proved a liar when I was telling the sober truth. My small reputation had been blasted; many of my so-called friends knew me no more, and my faith in British justice and the ways of the law had received a blow from which - I will be frank - it has never recovered."
• 
  "I was mentally numbed. Even today the memory has power to stir me deeply. And yet...what, in the long run, does it matter? Today almost all the people who took part in the action are dead. The chief instigator on the Daily Express died miserably; the judge is dead; Sir Patrick Hastings is dead; two of their other witnesses are dead also. Only two of those who were active against me are still living."

Mike Mitchell-Hedges was born in 1882 and died in 1959. He was an explorer, author, gambler and a solider with Pancho Villa in the Mexican Revolution. Mike Mitchell Hedges was undoubtedly quite a character.

As a youth he enjoyed reading books by Robert Lewis Stevenson, H. Rider Haggard, and Arthur Conan Doyle. Inspired by this authors and the tales of fascination and adventure they had spun in his mind as a youth, when he grew up, Mike Mitchell-Hedges felt as if the were driven to explore Central America and the lost continent of Atlantis - from where he believed the civilizations in Central America originated. His passion for fishing and his very active imagination helped him convince others that sea monsters of all shapes and sizes lived in the waters off of South America. These interests and belief can be found in books which he wrote including Battles With Giant Fish and Land of Wonder and Fear.

I also have discovered that the lost tribe of Indians that Mitchell-Hedges claimed to have discovered were infect discovered by Balboa. We established that Mitchell-Hedges never attended Cambridge as the information that he had given the Who's Who had been fictionalized.

The rather impressive initials that he had after his name actually resulted from him having joined the London Zoological Society, enabling him to enter the zoo on Sundays. Friends and people who knew Mitchell-Hedges described him as being a "charming rogue" who led an exciting life in which the veracity was not nearly as important as adventure. At one point in his career he was labeled "the British Baron of Munchausen."

Based on exhaustive research and interviews, Mitchell-Hedges has a very low credibility rating. In his autobiography, the following is in detail what Mitchell-Hedges said about his famous crystal skull:

• "We took with us also the sinister Skull of Doom of which much has been written. How it came into my possession I have reason for not revealing. The Skull of Doom is made of pure rock crystal and according to scientists it must have taken over 150 years, generation after generation working all the days of their lives, patiently rubbing down with sand and immense block of rock crystal until finally the perfect Skull emerged.
• "It is at least 3,600 years old and according to legend was used by the High Priest of the Maya when performing esoteric rites. It is said that when he willed death with the help of the skull, death invariably followed. It has been described as the embodiment of all evil. I do not wish to try and explain this phenomena."

The many references that Mitchell-Hedges had made about the bad luck or the willing of people to death by the crystal skull have been found to be the figments of his own very colorful and vivid imagination.

There is no scientific proof whatsoever that the crystal skull has been responsible for any harm falling on a person or any miraculous healing or other miracle.

I find it very strange and fascinating that while I have been studying the skulls which have been found throughout the world for a number of many years, I have answers for almost none of the important questions about the Mitchell-Hedges crystal skull. Although there are set or "stock" answers for many of the questions which are constantly being asked, I cannot honestly say that anyone knows with any degree of certainty who made the skull, how it was made, when it was made or what purpose it actually served.

These questions remain unanswered. The mysterious and some what confusing origin of the skull have added to its fictional legend and left ample room for those who seek their own interpretation to fill in the blanks with what ever they find meaningful.