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Ray Santilli is a London-based film producer, who on 5 May 1995 presented for the first time his alleged alien autopsy footage to media representatives and UFOlogists. The body was suggested to belong to one of the aliens picked from the supposed Roswell UFO crash site in 1947.
The video itself can be found on the LaserDisc and VHS versions of "Alien Autopsy – Fact or Fiction", a programme shown on Fox TV during 1995. Although the network didn't show the actual autopsy, those editions have the complete and unedited autopsy video, plus "never before seen" footage of wreckage from the purported alien craft. The show features experts being interviewed on the authenticity of the film and Fox itself produced a second programme debunking the video as a hoax a couple of years later.
Video debate and criticism
The debate on whether the autopsied body is a very realistic mannequin, a girl with a genetic disorder (such as progeria or Turner's syndrome), or a real alien continued for years. It is also questionable whether the film material and the equipments and objects in the autopsy room actually date to the time in question. Pathologists have also questioned the techniques being used in the supposed autopsy.
The photography is in black and white, and not the color standard in other autopsies during the suggested time period. Key moments, like the opening of the chest cavity, are missing. At other key moments, the camera slips out of focus. It is believed that these key moments are not shown because they were too difficult to fake. The camera does not follow the motions of the examiners but stays focused on the cuts they've made. The examiners hold their instruments in an odd way, unlike experienced surgeons and coroners.
On one wall of the autopsy room, there is a warning sign. Representatives of OSHA, which approves warning signs, claim that this particular sign was not produced until 1967, two decades after the alleged event.
In 2006, a British comedy movie called Alien Autopsy * was released, on the subject of Santilli faking the autopsy footage. Santilli has acted as executive producer, alongside his business partner Gary Shoefield.
Creation of the footage
On April 4 2006, to coincide with the release of the film Alien Autopsy, British Sky Broadcasting broadcast a documentary, "Eamonn Investigates: Alien Autopsy" presented by Eamonn Holmes. In this programme, Santilli finally revealed the full details of the creation of the footage. The whole circle closes as the feature film Alien Autopsy, which opened in the UK on April 6 2006, features a television documentary interviewing "Ray Santilli" about his revelation of how the autopsy was made.
Ray Santilli and Gary Shoefield now claim in 1992 that they originally saw twenty-two cans of film, averaging four minutes in length, shot in 1947 by a US Army cameraman in Roswell covering an alien autopsy. However, by the time they returned to purchase the footage two years later, the footage had degraded from humidity and heat with only a few frames staying intact. They now claim that they "restored the footage" by filming a fake autopsy on a fake alien "based upon what they saw".
A set was constructed in the living room of an empty flat at Rochester Square, Camden Town, London. John Humphreys, an artist and sculptor, was employed to construct two alien bodies over a period of three weeks, using casts containing sheep brains set in jelly, chicken entrails and knuckle joints obtained from S.C. Crosby Wholesale Butchers in Smithfield meat market, London. In addition, John played the part of the key scientist undertaking the autopsy to allow him to control the body effects being filmed. After filming, they disposed of the bodies (there were two separate attempts at making the footage) by cutting them into small pieces and then placing them into rubbish bins across London.
The "debris" footage of items from the crash site was also recreated by John Humphreys including the alien symbology and the six-finger control panels which Santilli admits to being "artistic licence on his part". As an additional decoy, Santilli and Shoefield picked up an unidentified homeless man on the streets in Los Angeles and filmed him in a hotel reading a statement "verifying" his identity as the original cameraman and source of the footage.
Santilli still claims that 5% of the film footage is genuine and intercut with the "recreation", though none of the contributors are able to identify which parts.
Further reading
- Joseph A. Bauer, A Surgeon's View: Alien Autopsy's Overwhelming Lack of Credibility, Skeptical Inquirer, vol 20, #1, Jan. 1996, 23-24. Reprinted in The UFO Invasion: The Roswell Incident, Alien Abductions, and Government Coverups, edited by Kendrick Frazier, Barry Karr, and Joe Nickell, Prometheus Books, 1997, ISBN 1-57392-131-9. Also reprinted in Bizarre Cases: From the Files of Skeptical Inquirer, CSICOP, 2000.
- C. Eugene Emery, Jr, 'Alien Autopsy' Show and Tell: Long on Tell, Short on Show, Skeptical Inquirer, vol 19, #6, Nov. 1995, 15-16 & 55. Reprinted in The UFO Invasion: The Roswell Incident, Alien Abductions, and Government Coverups, edited by Kendrick Frazier, Barry Karr, and Joe Nickell, Prometheus Books, 1997, ISBN 1-57392-131-9.
- Joe Nickell, 'Alien Autopsy' Hoax, Skeptical Inquirer, vol 19, #6, Nov. 1995, 17-19. Reprinted in The UFO Invasion: The Roswell Incident, Alien Abductions, and Government Coverups, edited by Kendrick Frazier, Barry Karr, and Joe Nickell, Prometheus Books, 1997, ISBN 1-57392-131-9.
- Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
- Trey Stokes, How to Make an 'Alien' for 'Autopsy', Skeptical Inquirer, vol 20, #1, Jan. 1996, 19-23. Reprinted in The UFO Invasion: The Roswell Incident, Alien Abductions, and Government Coverups, edited by Kendrick Frazier, Barry Karr, and Joe Nickell, Prometheus Books, 1997, ISBN 1-57392-131-9. Also reprinted in Bizarre Cases: From the Files of Skeptical Inquirer, CSICOP, 2000.
External links
"Alien autopsy"