2 June 1995
Dear Roswell Fans,
Here is some info I recently pulled off the internet about the Roswell Reels. I posted it a few days ago, but apparently not all of it made it into the forum here is the text in full. If anyone is interested in the WEB site for this and other UFO info and news, leave me mail and I will happily send it to you.
UFO Buff, James T. Lillard "Mulder is GOD!"
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ALLEGED ROSWELL FILM FOOTAGE TO BE SHOWN IN PUBLIC
On Sunday, March 26, CNN announced on Headline News that in August of this year at a UFO convention to be held in England a 16 mm film of an alien autopsy filmed by the U.S. military from a 1947 UFO crash in New Mexico will be shown to the public. The film is also said to show wreckage of the craft. No further information was given on CNN. The announcement was made between sports and entertainment news. However, similar stories were found in a number of newspapers around the country on the same day. These stories were apparently based on the following press release (original source not known).
Copyright 1995 The Press Association Limited
Press Association Newsfile March 26, 1995, Sunday SECTION: HOME NEWS
LENGTH: 429 words
HEADLINE: UFO EXPERTS TO SEE TOP-SECRET 'DEAD ALIENS' FILM
A top-secret film allegedly showing dead aliens will be screened for the first time anywhere in the world this summer - in Britain. It will also form the basis of a sensational BBC TV documentary due to be screened in August.
The 91-minute film, to be shown to an international audience of UFO spotters at a two-day conference at Sheffield Hallam University, has been classified as top secret for almost 50 years. It was shot by U.S. government officials in the desert of New Mexico, allegedly after a flying saucer crash-landed in 1947. U.S. Air Force officials sealed off the site and the film, shot by military cameramen, was immediately classified. UFO experts claim the truth has been covered up ever since.
But the 16mm black and white silent film, shot on 14 reels, was copied by a former military cameraman, now 82 and still living in America, who believed the cover-up was wrong and that the evidence should be publicly examined. He passed it to British TV documentary film maker Ray Santilli - who was in America making a documentary about Elvis Presley.
The film is alleged to show scientists examining a creature laid on a slab inside a tent at the crash site, guarded by military police. Scientists carry out an autopsy on the alien body and examine tissue samples. It is also said to show part of the spaceship wreckage - allegedly made from a material that could not be burned, dented or cut. Experts believe the cover-up was ordered to give U.S. scientists a chance to try to copy the engineering.
The UFO conference where it will be screened in August is likely to attract more than 500 enthusiasts from as far afield as Russia and South Africa. Conference organizer Philip Mantle of the British UFO Research Association said: "We have already had the film checked out by Kodak who confirm it is 50 years old, and we now plan to have it examined by film experts at the university."
Mr. Mantle, director of investigations for the UFO association, added: "I have seen one seven-minute reel. The film is clear and very intriguing.
"Of course, any film or picture can be faked, but if this is a hoax, a lot of people were involved because they can be clearly seen on screen, and by now we might have expected that one of them would have let the cat out of the bag.
"Our intention is to show the film and then Mr. Santilli, who is convinced it is genuine, will speak about the film. Then people will have to make up their own minds.
"This film has never had a public screening before in the world and is already creating intense interest."
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This is just some cursory information on what some of the "reels" contain. This part also contains a list of some of the events that have transpired since the "reels" have surfaced.
James T. Lillard
ROSWELL AUTOPSY SHOWING IN ITALY
by Edoardo Russo
Centro Italiano Studi Ufologici
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 20th and 21st, 1995, where Philip Mantle was invited to speak about the now famed alien autopsy film.
This report is being posted in the UFO newsgroups and mailing lists via Internet, in order to update colleagues all around the world on what Italian ufologists were able to learn first-hand.
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 5th, 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, being shown in London and elsewhere;
3) Papers presented by Maurizio Baiata and Philip Mantle at the Symposium.
In several different moments across three days, we could ask the same details to different people involved, in order to cross-check information, were able to discuss among us about the collected answers and to ask more details as needed. We tried to clear some of the rumours spread in the UFO press and through the Internet.
Here follows a resume of what we learned.
1) 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 27th, 1995. He tried and reached Santilli a few days later in Cannes (France) where he was shown the first part of the footage, which we will call:
1.1 - "the Tent footage":
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 but un-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 sometime the back of the assumed operator is seen passing in front of the scene.
This is the same footage Philip Mantle was given a videotaped copy of by Santilli, and 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.
1.2 - The "Second" Autopsy
On April 25th, 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, and asked to wait till the following day. He did so and on April 26th he was in Santilli's office where Chris Cary showed him a 12 minutes footage (sum of 4 reels of 3 minutes each) showing an autopsy of a naked alien within an operatory room. The body is very similar to the one in the "first autopsy footage" (see later on), except that it seemingly is more decomposed. Doctors performing this autopsy do not wear protective coveralls as in the earlier one, but do wear surgeon masks.
Philip Mantle confirmed to us that he too was shown this footage.
1.3 - The "First" Autopsy
This is the 18 minutes footage more widely known, since it was shown in the London Museum on May 5th, before 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/visionnaire/stigmatized Giorgio Bongiovanni with five of his followers (he, who usually see the Virgin Mary and talks about ETs as angels of the Lord, was later heard saying the alien was just the same as those seen by him!).
Detailed descriptions of this footage have been posted everywhere, so I won't repeat them here: both Baiata and Pinotti confirmed us all such details.
But here we can add our first-hand testimony: from this footage came the 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 in San Marino by Ray Santilli's associate Chris Cary on Saturday 20th and returned London with him on Sunday 21st;
c) - they could not be shown publicly for fear somebody could photograph or videotape them, so two private viewing 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 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 place or in later comments), which we agreed to.