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Alien Autopsy Part II: An Alien Body Talks

April 26, 1995…

Only five people have ever seen the first alien autopsy, which was never released to the public.

Ray Santilli with the Autopsy film canister (image credit: Philip Mantle)
Ray Santilli with the Autopsy film canister (image credit: Philip Mantle)

I spent the morning strolling in the center of London, visiting the always- elegant Burlington Arcade close to Piccadilly Circus and Oxford Street, and buying a couple of fairly rare and old UFO books. Then I prepared myself for the meeting, scheduled at 12 noon in Santilli’s office. Ray was with his friend Reg Presley, the former lead vocalist of the English rock band The Troggs, which was a huge success in the 60s with many hits such as “Wild Thing,” which reached the top of the charts.

I knew Reg had to be there because of his great interest in UFOs, so we immediately sympathized and recalled the old times, when I was a young adolescent crazy for “With a Girl Like You” that he sung with a strange nasal accent.

Santilli had reserved a table in a fancy Chino/Hawaiian restaurant. Wines and meal were sumptuous, and on our way to the office I started talking to Reg about the actual identity of the ex-military camera operator who supposedly shot the images. Reg told me not to search for any “Jack Barnett,” but for a certain “Jack Snow,” whose name Santilli had revealed to him some time before. The fundamental question was if there ever was a real cameraman…

Reg Presley is in the middle, sitting down.
Reg Presley is sitting down in the middle.

First Autopsy Screening

Around 2 p.m., Reg Presley and I were sitting in Santilli’s office ready to be shown a memorable spectacle. Santilli was very thrifty in introducing the viewing, “This is the first autopsy” he said, and he pushed the videocassette in the VCR. As the first images appeared in the not-so-large TV screen, we both got quite shocked. Even in their fuzzy and grainy black and white, the images were gory and graphic to the point that, from time to time, we had to take a deep breath before watching again.

First-Autopsy-01web
Image from first autopsy, vertical incision from the chest to the lower abdomen.

The autopsy incision was vertical, starting from the neck and going straight down to the lower belly. A “gynecological” examination was performed and, through a long tool similar to a dissecting or surgical forceps, a white filamentous substance was extracted.

After the ribcage was open (which is not visible in the images), a shiny arrow-shaped object was removed from the chest cavity. The same object appears in the “officially released” Santilli Alien Autopsy film. As I stated on several occasions, the being of this first autopsy appeared to me slightly different from the one that we see in the famous footage.

In fact, this first autopsy film equally shows a six-fingered body depicting typical human female external features and a swollen belly, and does not show any injury, like the extensive gash in the right leg of the creature seen in the released footage.

FIRSTautopsyweb
Image from the first autopsy, removal of unknown organ.

The images went fast, too fast, and in less than 12 minutes, the screen went black again. End of viewing.

I think in that moment I saw Reg Presley trying to stop the tears. He was very emotional and remained silent, but I shouted my gut’s reaction because that was not enough for me and I wanted to see it again. So, I provoked Santilli, saying “I think it was a human being.”

“Are you joking?” he replied. I insisted, “the expression on the face, and the body structure, it all seemed to me very human, but that was too short, I have to see it again.” We both then requested firmly to again see the film and Santilli unwillingly accepted. In that moment, I was sure that in no way could it be a hoax. As far as the rest of the materials, Santilli was clear we would possibly see them in the near future, but not this time.

leg-autopsy-1web
First autopsy image. The right leg is intact, as opposed to the same area on the second autopsy which was released to the public.
leg-autopsy-2web
Image form the second autopsy, showing damage to the right leg, which can not be seen in the first autopsy (above).

Around 7 p.m., I was leaving the London Heathrow Airport, and two hours later I was back in my home in Rome. I was then overwhelmed by an emotional crisis because of the strength of what I saw in London that afternoon. So I described the being to my wife at the time, Wendy, and she created an excellent artistic rendition of the body. The drawing appeared on the magazine “Notiziario UFO” that I was editing, and it still remains the only image of the First Autopsy.

ntufomag03web
Cover of Notiziario UFO Italian magazine. Title "Erano Vivi" means "They were alive".

A Real Autopsy at the Morgue in Rome

I had to consider the situation very carefully during the next several days. I needed to make a comparison between the alleged non-human body I saw dissected in the footage, and the body of a human being under autopsy. Was our anatomy completely different?

Massimo-Signoracci-foto-by-Alexander-Smoltczykweb
Massimo Signoracci, La Sapienza University, Rome

I contacted my friend Massimo Signoracci, who was (and still is) a very famous technician in forensic pathology at the Institute of Forensic Medicine at La Sapienza University in Rome. Massimo’s family has been embalming since 1870. They embalmed three popes and other famous figures including the former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro and King Farouk of Egypt. At that time, Massimo Signoracci had performed approximately 1,500 autopsies and had seen 40,000 bodies. He was considered a top authority in forensic science.

I was then very pleased when Massimo invited me to visit him at the university lab on the next day. There were corpses coming every morning. Yes, I was pleased, but frankly a little concerned, too. But I had to go.

The mortuary labs are located in the second floor of a very sober building facing the square of the Verano, the Monumental Cemetery of Rome. Massimo preceded me in the lab, I immediately spotted the body of a woman lying on a slab in one room, and then he escorted me to the last dissection room. There laid the body of a man in his 60s, naked, unattended by anybody. He was an American citizen who died the day before of an apparent stroke while he was walking in the central streets of Rome, near Piazza di Spagna. As prescribed by Italian laws, and in this case, the forensic experts were called to perform an autopsy to establish the cause of death.

Massimo’s expertise was absolutely stunning. Using a sharp knife that he called “Marchiafava” (not a surgical scalpel) he opened the body and dissected it all, removing and evaluating the organs at sight, in a few minutes. Then he concentrated his attention on the heart, which he extracted and put on a metallic pan and started slicing very carefully.

He showed me the reason of that death: black lines, necrotic veins, the indisputable sign of a massive heart attack. Massimo wrote the report and that was it. I will avoid other details for obvious reasons.

MB-&-M-Signoracciweb
Maurizio with Mr and Mrs. Massimo Signoracci

I was later escorted to another room, where two surgeons were performing a dissection, in this case sawing the cranium of a man who shot himself in the head. The operation was conducted with an electric blending saw. It took them a few minutes to confirm the cause of death.

So now I had new evidence that the body I saw in the First Autopsy had nothing to do with the human anatomy. That was enough to convince me to go ahead in my investigation and keep on the tracks of Mr. Ray Santilli.

From left: Collin Andrews, Phillip Mantle, Reg Presley (Andrews and Mantle have also seen the first autopsy film).
From left: Colin Andrews, Philip Mantle, Reg Presley (Andrews and Mantle have also seen the first autopsy film).

To be continued…

Click here to go back to Part 1 of this series

Maurizio Baiata

Maurizio is an investigative reporter, magazine editor and UFO researcher He started his journalistic activity in the late Sixties as a free lance journalist and then editor of several Rock Italian magazines, reaching the peak of his career as Editor in chief of "Rolling Stone" magazine’s Italian edition. In 1981 he moved to New York working as radio correspondent for the Italian state network RAI and then becoming editor-cultural page of the daily newspaper “Il Progresso Italo Americano”. Seven years later Baiata moved back to Italy and concentrated on UFO research, focusing on the Roswell incident. He produced many documentaries with large diffusion through all media and released the Autopsy Footage in 1995. In 1997 he published two books of the late Col. Philip Corso, “The Day After Roswell” and “Dawn of a New Age” (Corso’s original diary never published elsewhere). In Italy Baiata directed “Notiziario UFO", "UFO Network", “Dossier Alieni”, "Stargate"”Area 51” and “X Times” and two multimedia encyclopedias: “UFO Dossier X” and "Stargate - Enigmi dal Cosmo". He has presented at numerous lectures worldwide, including two appearances at the International UFO Congress in Laughlin.

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17 Comments

  1. Hi Maurizio,

    You know I have the man who led the team that faked the whole thing. His name is Spyros Melaris. The alien autopsy film is one big fake. This will ALL be finally published in my book ALIEN AUTOPSY CASEBOOK coming out in August 2010 in the UK. THis date will be the 15th anniversary of the films release on TV. It contains my 14 years of research and there is no doubt it is a fake I can assure you.

    Regards,

    Philip.

  2. I’ve been concerned with this case since 1995…and I know
    that Maurizio Baiata is telling the truth.
    I think that if people were allowed to see the 1 footage
    something would really change in the field of ufology and human history

  3. Dear friends
    the debate will end only when Mr. Melaris will show publicly his evidence, since it’s more than one year that he is claiming himself as the creator, director and producer of the AA footage in its integrity, and we still wait to see the evidence of it. On the other hand, when Mr. Santilli will do the same, since we remain anchored to Santilli’s last claims of a “restoration” of some original film frames, and too many questions stay well open, in my opinion. For instance, the 18 seconds b/w of the recovery scene in the last sequence of the movie “Alien Autopsy” released in 2006, and the first autopsy film, that I saw in London, and Philip Mantle also saw with his then wife Sue, but was never released publicly. I’ll talk about during my interview to Open Minds Radio tomorrow afternoon.
    Maurizio Baiata

  4. dear mr mantel
    for a long time you’ve been claiming that santilli’s footage is a hoax…but what have you done till now to
    render the first footage available to people?
    mr santilli isn’t aware of the evidences he left that
    proved his involvement in something much more bigger than
    that he wanted us to believe.
    salvo di stefano

  5. Maurizio,

    Thank you for posting this article, and I’ll try to tune into your show. I have a few questions:

    >>> Image from first autopsy, vertical incision from the chest to the lower abdomen. <<>> For instance, the 18 seconds b/w of the recovery scene in the last sequence of the movie “Alien Autopsy” released in 2006, <<<

    The film company who produced the Ant and Dec film, “Alien Autopsy” has been contacted on a number of occasions and they tell us that these 18 seconds of film is a production piece done by them. So, are they keeping the Santilli lie(s) alive by using more Santilli footage and then hiding this “fact”? For what reason?

    Also, when Santilli released his video, he stated, categorically, that all of the video he released was taken by the man claiming to be the cameraman, etc. Now, 15 years later he tells us that the previous statements were all a lie and that other than a few frames of “original film” inserted into this video (frames he can’t point out), it’s all a “restoration” of film he saw…

    Regardless if Spyros releases his proof, we’re still dealing with a man, Ray Santilli, who lied to the public, broadcasters and to the world, and a man who accepted a few million dollars based on these lies he told, only to change up his lies when another money making opportunity came his way.

    The story starts and ends with Ray Santilli. He masterminded the entire ordeal and only he can conclusively prove out this footage as real. Spyros’ information can assist us in getting to the bottom of this but Ray Santilli; a known liar, manipulator and confabulator, should be held over the fire until he spills his guts…

    Santilli wont, he can’t, because he’s in too deep and he’s not one to be looked on as a fool, a liar and a cheat… lightly.

    Mr. Mantle has seen enough material proof, shown to him by Spyros, in person, to convince him that this whole thing is a hoax. As the only researcher who has put in the time and effort to cover this story, continually, from 1993 onward, it might be time to accept this experts opinion, based on his findings, and then allow Santilli and Spyros to spin in the wind and prove Mantle’s findings wrong.

    Mark Center

  6. >>> but what have you done till now to render the first footage available to people? <<<

    Speaking for and with Mr. Mantle; Mantle can't release what he doesn't have. Santilli has made many claims regarding this first autopsy:

    He doesn't have it; it's in a vault in Germany.

    He has it and when the time is right, he will release it to the highest bidder…

    On and on with the lies and manipulations.

    All that matters, to the investigation, is that Santilli told the world that what we were watching and buying on VHS tape was a copy of camera original film… period.

    This was not true if you believe his new “restoration” story, of it is true and his new “restoration” story is a lie.

    Further, either you believe that he doesn’t have the first autopsy anymore or that he does… You see the trend. A trend of lies.

    One shouldn’t base any beliefs of a person who lies to the public and then gladly accepts money for those lies.

    Mark Center

  7. Hi Mark, thanks for you comments. Qwerty Films is the production company allegedly involved in the creation of those startling 18 seconds. I know Philip Mantle had a phone conversation with one of their reps, who said that they have done it. Good. Usually, in journalism we need a little more info, such as when, who, what et cetera, correct? So, if they can prove it in showing the names of the crew personnel, the actors, locations, dates and essentially providing publicly a working copy of the original film shots (probably in 16 mm.), I will be satisfied, and you too, I suppose. If they can not provide this info, I’d assume that Santilli knows a lot about this film sequence, and that he could have in his hands as in original 16 mm. film.
    I deeply respect Philip’s work and opinions, so I fully rely on him when he says that Melaris is the master minder. However, I bet that a spin in the wind between Santilli and Melaris will never occur, and that we have to see by our own eyes Mr. Melaris factual evidence, until now with no avail.
    Maurizio Baiata

  8. I understand what you’re asking for from the film company and, in a perfect world I would agree. However, you’re holding that film company up to a MUCH higher level of responsibility than you’re holding Santilli up to. Santilli has had over 15 years to fully and completely make his case, he hasn’t and it seems that he can’t…

    He can’t do anything more than change his story around to facilitate more attempts at making money off his unfinished tale…

    Let’s remember that Santilli made the claim that Kodak dated his “film” and not his “leader” of unknown origin. This never happened, and film was never dated. And in fact, “qualified” and “verified” film has never, ever been held in the hands of anyone but Santilli…

    So what are we to believe friend? Santilli’s trend of lies or a film company with seemingly no reason to support Santilli’s lies?

    By you submitting that those 18 seconds of video “may” be from the Santilli “video”, and in fact, it would be the longest section of video ever released of non-Santilli “faked” video, you’re playing into Santilli’s hands in keeping his fraud current and open for further opportunities to rip off the consumer.

  9. Mark,
    I basically agree with you, in principle, if we observe the entire ordeal, and to say the least, we can get really frustrated and angry at Santilli as you do. You’re mentioning some reasons, very important indeed, for it, I can mention more. Santilli’s autopsy films are all over the internet and I do not agree that the discussion can not go further because in doing it we nourish his finances whatsoever. My two cents, if that fraud was perpetrated even with the 18 seconds that I want to have clarified, well he is a genius, because that sequence of images -as it is- is very difficult and expensive to create. For me, either is an excellent reconstruction or is the real deal. Again, some of us became friends over such a disgraceful subject as the AA, and I think I really like this. Because now, with Open Minds I have the chance to openly discuss any topic with so many good friends, old and new. And then we will see.
    Maurizio

  10. Firstly I do not have the first AA film footage to make available to anyone. If I had it I’d gladly make it available but I don’t. Secondly, It was a senior executive at Qwerty Films that told me that they had made the black & white sequenc e at the end of the Ant & Dec movie. They also told me that UK sculptor John Humphries made the dummies for them and Santilli long before Santilli changed his story. Humphries full involvement was told to US TV producer Bob Kiviat.You don’t have to take my word for it as you are free to ask them yourself. I have had the pleasure of being in the home of Spyros Melaris and seeing more than enough of his evidence to leave me in no doubt that he is the man that led the team that faked it. Added to this, do not forget I have interviewec Keith Bateman and one of his employees. They were responsiible for making the tent footage. Keith also told how, from that the whole AA film hoax began. This was also supported by one of his TV producers and 2 people independent of him. The late Georgina Bruni also interviewd a photographer with the nick-name of ‘Angel’ he also toild of how the film was faked. And last but not least Michael Hesemann reluctantly reported to us just 2 years ago that he was given the full details of Spyros Melris’s involvement way back in l996 but he told no one. He even telephoned Spyros at the time. When you add all of the pieces together it spells out just one thing ‘FRAUD’.

  11. In the end, if you choose to not believe Mr. Mantle’s findings, go get Santilli to pony up some physical evidence. Any physical evidence. Good luck with that.

  12. Hi Philip, I’m so pleased about your precious comment. I’d make the first autopsy footage available for everyone, for sure, my friend! I really appreciate that you are sharing with us the info on the work you’ve done just to ascertain the truth, as Mark and few others kept doing until now. This makes a difference with all the people that on the frenzy of the big wave of 1995 jumped on the bandwagon and then after they shouted their stuff, just disappeared. Nice. Serious researchers are like you. So we are left with you’re total confidence on Melaris’s version. I have your article in front of me, Philip and as promised, I’ll try to publish it asap in our magazine. Meantime, I’ll go after Qwerty Films.

  13. Hi Maurizio,

    Like I said, it’s not just what Spyros has said and provided, it is instead an accumulation of evidence. The icing on the cake and the final nail in coffin was the evidence provided by Spyros. Why don’t you leave the article until my book comes out next August (15th anniversary of the AA film) as then there will be a very good reason to publish it and it might help sell a few copies. If I come across any more info I will of course share it.

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