Following extensive discussions of the controversial "Roswell Film Footage" at a UFO conference in San Marino, Italy on May 20-21, Italian researcher Edoardo Russo of the Centro Italiano Studi Ufologici posted a report on the internet. The following is Russo's complete report, slightly edited for grammar and clarity.]
ROSWELL AUTOPSY SHOWING IN ITALY
by Edoardo Russo
This is a report on the showing of the so-called Roswell autopsy at the Third International Symposium on UFOs and Related Phenomena, held by Centro Ufologico Nazionale (CUN) in San Marino (Italy) on May 20 and 21, 1995, where Philip Mantle was invited to speak about the now famed alien autopsy film.
Sources for the report are the following:
1) Direct viewing by CISU members Paolo Fiorino, Matteo Leone, Edoardo Russo and Maurizio Verga of seven slides taken from the same footage shown in the London Museum on May 5, 1995, with comments by Philip Mantle (BUFORA Director of Investigations) and Chris Cary (associate of footage owner, Ray Santilli);
2) Interviews and discussions by Matteo Leone, Edoardo Russo and
Maurizio Verga with Chris Cary, Philip Mantle and some members of CUN who were able to see one of more parts of the video footage, as shown in London and elsewhere;
3) Papers presented by Maurizio Baiata and Philip Mantle at the Symposium.
Here is a summary of what we learned.
DESCRIPTION OF PARTS OF THE FOOTAGE BEING SHOWN
Both Philip Mantle and Maurizio Baiata were shown three different
footages. Mantle simply confirmed this to us, while we got most details from Baiata, an independent TV producer who has been working with CUN in the last three years and produced ten commercial UFO videotapes in Italy.
Baiata has been following the story since the first mention of the film in a news agency release on March 27, 1995. He reached Santilli a few days later in Cannes (France) where he was shown the first part of the footage, which we will call:
1) the "Tent footage"
This was 7 minutes of black and white film showing an alleged alien body lying on a table within a tent badly lit by a lamp. The body is partly covered by a sheet, the head is badly visible in the dark, arms and feet are protruding from the cover, two white-dressed butun-masked men are examining the arms and seem to take a large piece of either skin or texture from an arm or the side of the body. The camera is fixed and sometimes the back of the assumed operator is seen passing in front of the scene.
This is the same footage Philip Mantle was given a videotape copy of by Santilli, and has been shown by either Mantle or Santilli to several different people in the last months. This is the only part of the footage Mantle has got as yet in his possession and he is not allowed to show it publicly.
2) The "Second Autopsy"
On April 25, Baiata flew from Rome to London in order to be shown a longer footage by Santilli. (Baiata offered to buy the rights for Italy, and arranged for the Italian national TV to take an interest in it.)
When he got there, he was told the laboratory had not yet finished its work. He was asked to wait till the following day. He did so, and on April 26 he was in Santilli's office where Chris Cary showed him a 12-minute footage (sum of 4 reels of 3 minutes each) showing an autopsy of a naked "alien" within an operating room. The body is very similar to the one in the "first autopsy footage" (see below), except that it seemingly is more decomposed. Doctors performing this autopsy do not wear protective coveralls as in the earlier one, but do wear surgical masks.
Philip Mantle confirmed to us that he too was shown this footage.
3) The "First Autopsy"
This is the 18 minutes of footage most widely known, since it was shown in the London Museum on May 5 to more than 100 invited journalists and UFO students. Italians attending were Maurizio Baiata, CUN director and UFO book author Roberto Pinotti, Italian TV Channel 2 (Raidue) director Gianni Minoli, and contactee/stigmatic Giorgio Bongiovanni with five of his followers. (He, who usually sees the Virgin Mary and talks about ETs as angels of the Lord, was later heard saying the alien [in the film] was just the same as those seen by him!)
Detailed descriptions of this footage have been posted everywhere [see several stories in recent editions of CNI News]. Both Baiata and Pinotti confirmed us all such details.
But here we can add our first-hand testimony: from this footage came seven slides shown during the Symposium, which we were able to see. Circumstances of the viewing are meaningful:
a) the slides were not (and are not) in the possession of Philip Mantle;
b) they were taken to San Marino by Ray Santilli's associate Chris Cary on Saturday, May 20, and returned to London with him on Sunday the 21st;
c) they could not be shown publicly for fear somebody could photograph or videotape them, so two private viewings were arranged.
The first show was on Saturday at lunch time (when the public had left), in the Grand Hotel: only official speakers at the Symposium, CUN directors, the press and local authorities were admitted. The Hotel was cordoned by policemen who checked every single person to verify that nobody carried cameras or the like (this 007 scene was filmed by Italian TV and shown in the news on the following day).
The second viewing took place in an underground room at the Symposium, at 7.30 p.m. on the same day, allowing only the press and attending CUN members to enter (and be checked one by one by the policemen against unwanted cameras).
Attending CISU members were also invited to this second viewing by Pinotti and Baiata, probably afraid that we might do some negative PR action. You should know that CUN and CISU are rival organizations and do not keep good relations since 1985, when CISU was formed by former CUN members, CUN representing the 'fundamentalist', ET-believer approach, while CISU maintains a more skeptical-minded attitude. We were asked to keep a respectful approach (do not laugh, nor ridicule the film or the Symposium organizers, either on location or in later comments), to which we agreed.
Among other viewers (we counted 90 to 100 in all) there were Swiss ufologist Bruno Mancusi and Spanish UFO journalist Javier Sierra, with whom we later exchanged opinions.
Here follows a description of the Seven Slides:
1) A humanoid naked body lying on a table in a room; we were told female genitals were visible, but none of us was able to confirm this; the hairless head has two human-like ears in a lower position than us humans, two large Communion-style black eyes wide open, a very small nose, an open mouth. The belly is expanded and pregnant-like. The famed phone with a curled cord is plainly visible on a wall, as well as some surgical instruments in an open box. The right leg is badly wounded (missing flesh) and looks as if void inside.
2) A close-up of the head.
3) The black eye-cover being removed, showing white eye-balls (a small incision between chest and neck is already visible at this stage).
4) The body is being opened up with a L-shaped cutting from above chest to abdomen.
5) The opened body is exposed, with dark inside organs visible but not clearly distinguishable; no chest bones are found.
6) The whole body shown: six fingers are clearly visible on each hand.
7) The head skin is being removed, partly showing the brain. A doctor's gloved hands and part of his white dress are visible.
Additional notes:
a) The black eye-cover is still in place in slides 4 through 7. Was it re-positioned after the removal shown in slide 3? Or is the correct order unrespected? (But then how to explain that in all slides after the fourth, the chest is wide open, while it's intact in slide 3?)
b) Though we were told organic liquids are visible as abundantly
flowing in the video, nothing at all is visible in the slides; moreover, neither doctors' gloves nor the table are dirty, but white and clean in all seven slides.
c) According to Paolo Fiorino, who is a professional nurse with direct autopsy experience, the table wouldn't seem apt (lacking any draining) and visible instruments are too few to be sufficient; moreover, contrary to verbal descriptions, he noticed no sign of rigor mortis in the body.
These notes are based upon viewing only slides, thus they may be overcome by a viewing of the complete video.
RUMORS, CONFIRMATIONS AND REBUTTALS
We were able to ask a lot of questions and tried to verify several rumors heard or read (mostly on Internet exchanges). Here's a summary.
1) Phone cord: Mantle said that curled cords in use for telephones as early as the 1940s were found in a book.
2) Truman visiting the body: Mantle and Baiata were adamant that they never saw nor heard of Truman being visible in any part of the film.
3) Detlev Bronk and MJ-12: Mantle said that two names are plainly visible on a note-book held by someone during the autopsy: Detlev Bronk (the well known physiologist allegedly member of MJ-12) and a Dr. Williams. On the contrary, Baiata was adamant that no name could be visible on any note-book, because of its position [i.e. with respect to camera angle]. But Baiata also told us that he saw a sort of introductory headline on the 12-minute "second autopsy" footage he was privately shown on April 26: "Autopsy performed by Dr. Detlev Bronk."
4) Kodak analysis: Mantle denied that any analyses have been performed by Kodak. The company did only confirm that symbols and serial numbers visible on the film were real and recycled every 20 years, in particular in 1947, 1967 or 1987.
5) Brazilian documentary: Mantle denied the story that an "Unsolved Mysteries" reporter would have recognized the autopsy footage as part of a Brazilian UFO documentary.
6) Vallee's role: Mantle denied a rumor (we never heard it before) that the footage was first offered to UFO researcher Jacques Vallee.
7) Nagaitis' role: Chris Cary denied the rumor that Carl Nagaitis (press agent of Philip Mantle and co-author of his 1994 book on UFO abductions, "Without Consent") was also the press agent of Ray Santilli, though he admitted they knew each other.
8) Cary's role: I asked Chris Cary (variously described as Santilli's lawyer, accountant or partner) what his usual work activity was and what his role is in this affair. He replied he usually is in the film/TV documentary business, that he was acquainted with Santilli, and that Santilli called him to help cope with the growing media interest: he is now responsible for the marketing of the footage.
NEW INFORMATION
The following information emerged that was as yet unknown to us:
1) Exact chronology: Santilli got the footage from Jack Barnett (real name, officially confirmed by Mantle in his speech) in June 1993, but according to Cary, Santilli had known about it for at least a year (if true, this partly contradicts previous stories). Mantle learned of the footage in 1993, phoned Santilli and asked to view it but got a refusal, so he dismissed it as a tall tale and forgot it. The first one to view it would have been pop singer Reg Presley, in late 1993 or January 1994. When he told the story on TV, Mantle went back to Santilli and finally was able to view it. Mantle got Santilli's promise to show it in Sheffield, England next August. Mantle confirmed that the world media explosion began when he mentioned the footage to a local journalist friend while promoting the Sheffield congress. The news went on the national wires and soon he began receiving phone calls from all over the world.
2) Revising the Roswell time-line: Baiata told us he was told by Santilli that the footage consisted of several different recordings taken between June 5th and July 5th, 1947, in Roswell and Fort Worth. This would put back the Roswell crash about one month earlier than the original story. By the way, Mantle said that cameraman Barnett was allegedly ordered to Roswell by Washington officials.
3) 91 minutes of film, not all good: Baiata was also told that some other short footages from the film have been viewed, but he was not shown them. Cary said that not all 91 minutes are as good as the three parts already shown.
4) BUFORA attitude: Mantle confirmed to me that the other BUFORA directors are skeptical, and that no one of them has yet been able to view the footage, not even at the London Museum showing (as well as none of the American Roswell researchers, who claimed to be skeptical). He himself was very cautious in his public comments, and also said that he officially asked Santilli for a complete copy, offering BUFORA facilities for analysing it.
5) Spielberg's movie and the Roswell footage: Mantle told us that the famed early 1994 UK tabloid story of Spielberg planning a new movie on Roswell and MJ-12 based on real footage was actually originated by Carl Nagaitis, who had learned of the Santilli's film and hoped to force him to come public with it.
6) Marketing strategy: we asked Cary what Santilli's and his intentions are with respect to showing and selling the footage. Cary explained the plan is to have public interest raised by gradual revelations (still pictures from the footage will be released in June) up to the climax with the footage showing at the 8th International UFO Congress in Sheffield next August. At that time, they will sell the rights for each nation, so as to gain a maximum price.
7) Highest price offer yet: Santilli allegedly received and rejected an offer from the Israel TV for world exclusive rights on the footage: 7 million dollars.
8) Santilli on WWW: Cary told us that Merlin (Santilli's company) is planning a World Wide Web server to be on the Internet with their own home page soon.
This report was completed by Edoardo Russo on May 24, 1995, based upon personal memory and a comparison with memories and notes by Matteo Leone, who also helped to revise the present text. You may reach us by mail, phone, fax or e-mail as follows: CISU, Corso Vittorio Emanuele 108, I-10121 Torino, Italy; phone (24 hours): +39-11-3290279; fax (24 hours): +39-11-5617124; e-mail: edoardo.russo@pmn.it
Original file name: .CNI - Roswell.Italy final
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