Copyright 1995 by Linda Moulton Howe
P. O. Box 538, Huntingdon Valley, PA 19006
FAX: 215-491-9842 E-Mail: LMH333@aol.com
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[EARTH MYSTERIES NEWS is produced by Linda Moulton Howe, an ISCNI founding faculty member and one of the world's leading investigators of crop circles, unusual animal mutilations, UFO phenomena and other "Earth Mysteries." Part 1 of this series of articles appeared in the October 2, 1995 edition of CNI News.]
INTERVIEW WITH BOB SHELL
[Oct 19, 1995] -- Bob Shell has been editor of "Shutterbug" magazine for eight years, and has worked at the magazine for 24 years. "Shutterbug" is a marketplace for old and new camera equipment. This past summer, Shell received six frames of alleged 1947 black and white 16mm film known as "Roswell film" from Ray Santilli, owner of Merlin Productions in London. Santilli is a music video producer who originally purchased the controversial autopsy footage from a retired United States cameraman, "JB," and wanted to know Shell's opinion about its vintage.
Shell said the most credible final authority of the film's chemical makeup and age is Kodak in Rochester, New York. But he examined the six frames -- including a "smell test" -- and wrote a report from which I quote excerpts (reproduced with permission):
"The edge code markings on the film, a square followed by a triangle immediately following the word KODAK, indicate film manufactured in 1927, 1947 and 1967. Kodak changed the system to a three-symbol code in the early 70s, so this code was not used in 1987.
"In 1947, the film base used was acetate propionate, one of the original safety film base materials. By 1967, acetate propionate was no longer in use and had been replaced with triacetate. The 'Roswell film' has acetate propionate base.
"The 'Roswell film' is on Cine Kodak Super XX High Speed Panchromatic Safety Film, a film type introduced in the early 40s (Kodak doesn't know exact year) and discontinued in 1956-57 when all film types were discontinued and replaced with new types which were processed in new high temperature, more caustic chemicals. Film made prior to 1957 cannot be properly processed in later chemicals.
"It would be impossible to take unexposed Super XX film from 1947 and expose it today and get any sort of usable image. The film would be heavily fogged from cosmic radiation by now. High speed (high sensitivity) films are much more sensitive to cosmic rays than slow (low sensitivity) films.
"I find the physical characteristics of the 'Roswell film' and the characteristics of the images on the film to be totally consistent with film manufactured, exposed and processed in 1947." (copyright 1995 Bob Shell Ltd. May not be reproduced in any manner without permission.)
On October 5, 1995, I talked with Bob Shell about his continuing efforts to verify the film's authenticity. He said, "Kodak wants a strip of film minimum of 50 frames in length. It must be intact from edge to edge, not torn off on one edge. All the strips I've had so far have been torn off on one edge. And it must have the edge markings clearly visible on it. And I've asked Santilli to get that many frames to Kodak."
LH: "So what is the current status?"
BS: "I keep being told that this will be forthcoming, but so far I haven't seen the film I've asked for. They keep telling me the actual film is locked up in a bank vault in Switzerland."
LH: "So Ray Santilli's office does not have access now to the original 16mm film?"
BS: "Only through the German Spielberg. He's the guy who put up the money and only through him do I now understand they have access to the film. Spielberg has told people on the telephone that he is 100% owner of all the film."
LH: "If I understand correctly, you have worked for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in biological research areas?"
BS: "OK, I worked for the CIA as a zoologist thirty years ago. I wasn't a spook. I was just a biologist and zoologist. I stayed in touch with some of my friends who are members of the intelligence community in the intervening years. I talk to one of them quite frequently. But I am no longer in the employment of the Agency and no longer do any work for them."
LH: "Have you talked with anybody in the inner sanctum at all off the record...?"
BS: "It's only off the record to talk to those people!"
LH: "I wondered if anyone has talked to you for background?"
BS: "Let me tell you what I did first when I was approached about this whole project."
LH: "Who approached you first?"
BS: "Ray Santilli. And he told me what the film was supposed to be."
LH: "What did he say then?"
BS: "He said it was film of an alien autopsy from Roswell, New Mexico in 1947. [Corrected later to 10 miles southwest of Socorro, New Mexico.] And, of course, I knew generally about the Roswell crash story. I had read a couple of the books, I had seen the television production, so I knew what was supposed to have happened. So, I called up my friend who is in intelligence, officially retired ..."
LH: "Could I ask for a qualifier? Did this friend work in the inner sanctum related to MJ-12 or any of the special projects in the Truman Administration?"
BS: "Not to my personal knowledge."
LH: "He may have?"
BS: "I doubt that he did. I know he knows a lot about this stuff. I don't think he was ever officially involved. But, I called him up when I first got into this and said, 'Jim, let me tell you this story.' And I told him about the Santilli film. And -- pardon my language, but I'll quote him precisely -- he said: 'Holy shit, you mean it's finally out!'
"And I said, 'Maybe it is.' He answered, 'I figured it was only a matter of time.' And I said, 'Jim, am I getting myself into any personal danger by getting involved in this?' And he said, 'Let me get back to you on that.'
"So he called me back three days later after talking to some of his friends and said, 'Bob, I don't think you have anything to worry about because if they had wanted this hushed up, Santilli and the cameraman both would have been dead a week ago."
LH: "He said that?"
BS: "Yeah. So, based on that assurance from him, I went ahead and got involved in it. And I have had no sign that anybody is monitoring me, following me, nobody has threatened me. I see no intelligence involvement at all, which really surprises the hell out of me!"
LH: "I would say the government has been silent as a stone on all this, which is puzzling."
BS: "It's very puzzling. It either means this is the real thing and they have just decided to let it run its course; or maybe they did it themselves. But I think it's possible the release is an accident. Maybe they were so close to releasing stuff anyway they just decided to let it run its course."
LH: "Or they are over a barrel and the silence is related to the fact that the film is real and there's nothing they can say and are using this opportunity to judge public reaction."
BS: "Yeah, could be."
LH: "Any other information that has come to you from sources verifying the film in some way?"
BS: "Only that I talked to one man who was referred to me by my other friend, Jim. This man is an active intelligence officer at a very high level who says that he personally has seen one of those control panels -- the things with the hand prints -- years ago back in the 1960s. He said he was partially involved in a project that was attempting to reverse engineer them and what they are is computers. And he said that after all the years of research that they have done on them, they were no closer to understanding them now than the first day they laid eyes on them."
LH: "And the knobs placed in the palm and at the ridges of the largest knuckles and at the tips of the fingers -- they suggest a connection to electrical fields or nerve impulses?"
BS: "He said that those panels are -- the way he put it to me is: 'Neuron-based computers.'"
LH: "Neuron based?"
BS: "Not electronic, but biological in base (like our brains)."
LH: "Did he elaborate on how it could be neuron-based if it appears to be some type of metallic crystal or sophisticated polymer construction?"
BS: "He didn't. I would assume that is just the exterior. That the computer itself would be inside those panels. The one that is broken in half -- if you look at it carefully on the film you can sort of see that there is a bunch of stuff hanging out where it's broken."
As of October 18, 1995, Bob Shell reports that Ray Santilli's Merlin Productions in London is trying to get more film frames to Kodak at its main headquarters in Rochester, New York for final analysis. Santilli told me that more autopsy film might be released in the near future.
[Continued in Part 3, Interview with Ray Santilli.]
Original file name: CNI - Bob Shell.LMH 10.19
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