The Alien Autopsy Film
: Have we seen this before?
For almost fifty years stories have persisted
that a flying saucer, piloted by extra-terrestrial beings, crashed
near Roswell, New Mexico in 1947. Military reports at first
confirmed, then denied this story, causing suspicions to be
raised that more than a simple weather balloon, as claimed,
had come down at a remote ranch in New Mexico.
Then in 1995 a businessman from England, Ray Santilli,
announced to the world that while researching old film material
for a music production, he had obtained military footage of
an autopsy performed on one of the alien beings that had died
in the crash at Roswell.
The film was incorporated into several documentaries
broadcast on TV and sold on video. The footage, in grainy black
and white, shows what appears to be two gloved and masked doctors
doing an autopsy on an alien creature. The creature is similar
in form to a human, but with six fingers and other minor anatomical
differences. A third person can be seen observing the autopsy
from behind a window. The entire procedure is not on film, reportedly
because not all the reels filmed during the autopsy were obtained
by Santilli.
According to Santilli he was looking for old film
of an Elvis concert when he came in contact with a cameraman
who had served in the United States military. The cameraman,
who wished to remain anonymous, told Santilli that he had been
stationed in Washington D.C. in 1947 when suddenly he was ordered
to fly to Roswell, New Mexico. While at Roswell he filmed the
clean-up of the crashed saucer and later recorded the autopsies
of several aliens. Due to an administrative oversite, not all
of the autopsy film was collected from him. He had kept a few
reels secret for almost fifty years and offered to sell these
to Santilli for $100,000.
After some negotiation Santilli, and another businessman,
purchased the film and made it public. So is the film the exposure
of a grand cover up and conspiracy? Or a clever (and financially
successful) hoax?
Skeptics of the film point out a long list of
errors and inconsistencies with the footage, though many acknowledge
it was a well-done hoax that was probably carried out by creating
a dummy alien body. One Hollywood special effects man admitted,
"The point is, if we did this, I'd be pretty proud of it."
One of their complaints include the way the body
lies on the table. Not like a body at rest on its back, but
more like a body standing in an upright position. Some special
effect people argue this is evidence that the body was cast
from a real human being, then altered to add extra fingers,
etc. The easiest way to accomplish a casting is while the subject
is standing up.
Medical authorities argue that the autopsy itself
was sloppily done. There was no systematic, careful study of
the subject, but a "hack and slash." They point out that an
alien would not be subject to an autopsy, anyway, but given
the rare and unprecedented opportunity of studying the alien,
a careful dissection and microscopic study, that might have
taken weeks, would have been done.
Finally, some of the best evidence against the
film is the film itself. According to Santilli the cameraman
was with the military. Military cameramen are trained to carefully
record events, like autopsies, in a prescribed way. Standard
procedure for an important autopsy would include two cameras.
One mounted above the table looking down, and one on a stationary,
raised tripod in a location where there would be a clear view
of the proceedings. The cameraman's style (shifting positions,
getting his view blocked, climbing around and over the medical
workers) would have gotten him, according to one former military
officer, "back scrubbing pots in the kitchen."
It appears that the cameraman may have been purposely
obscuring the proceedings to hide defects in the hoax. Experts
also indicate that for such an important event as this color,
not black and white, film would have been used. Also a "still"
photographer would work hand-in-hand with the motion photographer
to record every step of the procedure. There is no record in
the film of another photographer in the room, nor the tell-tale
light from his flash bulbs.
The film itself also lacks the "flash" that usually
appears at the beginning of each segment. All spring-wound cameras
of that time start up slowly and overexpose the first few frames
after the trigger is pressed. This indicates either a more sophisticated
motor driven camera was used instead of what was claimed, or
the film has been edited.
It also seems incredible that a top-secret film
like this would not have been collected from the photographer
immediately after it had been shot. Cameramen given top-secret
assignments in the military were not allowed to develop their
own film.
So is there any evidence that the footage isn't
a fake? Well, there is actually film from two alien autopsies
in Santilli's hands. One taking place in a tent, and the other,
more familiar one, taking place in an operating room of some
sort. If each sequence costs around $100,000 to make, as some
Hollywood special effects people believe, why bother to do it
twice?
If it turns out that the alien autopsy film is
a hoax, it bears a strange resemblance to the story of the Minnesota
Iceman. The Minnesota Iceman, supposedly a "missing link"
frozen in ice, was being shown at carnivals around the country
in the 60's.
When two cryptozoogists took the creature seriously,
the owner of the beast, Frank Hansen, at first welcomed the
exposure. As pressure mounted, though, he refused to permit
any more close inspections claiming the thing actually belonged
to a rich collector who had decided against allowing further
investigations. Amazingly this is exactly what Santilli has
said to people wishing to examine the original film stock.
Eventually a Hollywood special effects company
admitted they had made the iceman. Will someone claim authorship
for the autopsy alien? Even if someone does it still may not
settle the matter. Hansen claimed that the special effects iceman
was just a copy of the real creature that he'd secreted away
in a safe location. And some are claiming even now that the
alien autopsy film is actually a government cover up for the
real alien autopsy film.
And so it goes...
Video:
"Alien Autopsy Fact or Fiction?"
The TDC Alien Autopsy Page
Copyright Lee Krystek
1997. All Rights Reserved.