Morristown UFO Hoax: Meet The Duo Behind The 2009 Experiment

MORRISTOWN, NJ — Some people still insist that Chris Russo and Joe Rudy are government agents or paid actors who know the truth about aliens — 12 years after they revealed they were the puppetmasters behind the Morristown UFO hoax.

The phenomenon began Jan. 5, 2009, when they released five flare lights attached to helium balloons over Morris County. Hanover police got the first of many 911 calls. People pulled over to witness what they thought could be UFOs. Local and national news media stayed glued to the mystery. UFO "experts" weighed in and told people they were extraterrestrial.

But it was all just two guys in Morristown.

"We decided to do a social experiment to see what kind of reaction it would get," Russo told Patch. "And as you’ve seen, it got a pretty big reaction. A lot of ‘experts’ jumped on board to give their opinions, which turned out to be wrong."

On April 1, 2009, Rudy and Russo announced to the public via a Skeptic Magazine article that it was all a hoax.

Rudy and Russo conducted the experiment to show how easily people could deceive themselves via a lack of evidence. If anything proves them right, it's the people who to this day insist that the duo lied that it's a hoax and that they have knowledge of extraterrestrials.

Six days after their revelation, they pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct. They were each sentenced to fines of $250 and 50 hours of community service.

But would they do it again?

"Would we do this whole hoax again?" Russo said. "No. If anything, we’d do something different. But in retrospect, would we do it again? We might."

Talking to the Hoax Architects

The hoax returned to mainstream media as Vice released a short documentary on "How We Staged a UFO Hoax." Watch the video below:

These days, Russo lives right off the Morristown Green. He runs a business called Superhero Events, which helps conduct road races. Rudy lives in San Diego and works for The New York Times.

But the hoax still comes up in conversation for both, says Russo, who looked back at the hoax with Patch.

Patch: What gave you and Joe the idea?

Russo: We were kind of sitting around one day. We had an idea to put on a hoax well before we did it. It was kind of something that fascinated me — the way people thought about certain things and came to extraordinary conclusions when there’s no extraordinary evidence to back it up. Joe and I are very similar thinkers when it comes to that kind of stuff.

But we decided to do a social experiment to see what kind of reaction it would get. And as you’ve seen, it got a pretty big reaction. A lot of ‘experts’ jumped on board to give their opinions, which turned out to be wrong.

Patch: How often does it come up in conversation?

Russo: Believe it or not, it comes up a decent amount. In 2015, truTV did something about the best hoaxes ever, and they interviewed us. We were approached about our own TV show back in 2013 — a ‘Punk’d’ kind of concept where we could go around hoaxing people. It never really gained any traction, but we were so honored that it happened.

But even now, it’s still brought up. We did that interview with Vice earlier this month. And 12½ years later, you still have people who are kind of fascinated by it, for lack of a better word.

Patch: I know there are some who still believe, but what were people’s reactions once they realized it was a hoax? Did they think it was funny? Were they mad about it?

Russo: It depends who you asked. Some people absolutely loved it. They thought it was great. The people who didn’t believe it was an extraterrestrial craft, the people who did believe it was one — they thought it was great.

Some people were a little upset with us — understandably so. And some people were indifferent. Some people said, ‘I’m not sure why they did it, but cool.’ It depends who you ask. Most people loved it. Some people weren’t thrilled with us, and some people were indifferent.

Patch: It was you or Joe who mentioned in the Vice video, if you did it again, you probably wouldn't have taken your own footage or involved yourselves so much. But thinking back, would you do this whole hoax?

Russo: Would we do this whole hoax again? No. If anything, we’d do something different. But in retrospect, would we do it again? We might. We might have done it again. We might do things a little differently. But overall, yeah, we kind of were happy with what we did.

We would not inject ourselves into it this time. It wasn’t even necessary to do it, and we did get some flack for that. A lot of people said you should never inject (yourself) into a science experiment. But it wasn’t really a science experiment. It was a social experiment. So really you could kind of set the parameters to be whatever you want them to be. But that being said, we shouldn’t have injected ourselves into it.

Patch: Did you two have any experience with pranks or social experiments or anything like that prior to this?

Russo: Nothing crazy, no more than any other kid would have been. As far as hoaxes, this was our one and only.

Patch: So kind of a one-hit wonder.

Russo: It’s a one-hit wonder, for now at least.

Patch: What shocked you the most about the reactions?

Russo: Two things. The news, from local coverage all the way to national coverage, were jumping on this before we revealed the hoax and after we revealed the hoax. But still, you look at some of the YouTube comments on the most recent video that was posted. There are still people that think it’s some coverup, that we’re actors, that we are covering up this unbelievable truth that the government’s trying to hide and we’re somehow paid actors.

Patch: Do you believe that there are aliens or any kind of intelligent life?

Russo: It’s funny. People always come to me and say, ‘Chris, how could you believe there’s not life out there?’ I do not believe we’ve ever been visited by an extraterrestrial craft. They counter with, ‘Chris, how could you believe there’s not life out there in the universe?’ When you think about it, I never said that.

There may or may not be intelligent life somewhere out there in the big, vast universe of ours. But I do say there’s not evidence to suggest that we’ve ever been visited by them. All these occasions in the past are easily explainable, including (the) Roswell (incident). There’s no evidence to suggest that we’ve ever been visited by ET. But again, I’m not saying there’s not intelligent life out there. There could be. We haven’t found it yet, but there could be.

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