Posted to UFO World
courtesy of the author: James Easton

In August of 1995, millions of viewers world-wide watched television broadcasts of some grainy black and white film, claimed to have been taken in 1947 and which documented an astonishing event, the dissection of an apparently alien creature.

The film was brought to public attention by London businessman Ray Santilli, a company director with a diverse involvement in the music, entertainment and publishing arenas.

He claimed, "As a result of research into film material for a music documentary, I was in Cleveland, Ohio in the summer of 1993. Whilst there I had identified some old film material taken by Universal News in the summer of 1955".

Santilli said he was "able to determine that the film was shot by a local freelance cameraman, who had been employed by Universal News because of a film union strike".

He continued, "The cameraman was located, following which a very straight forward negotiation took place for his small piece of film, i.e., cash for three minutes of film. Upon completion of this, the cameraman asked if I would be interested in purchasing outright very valuable footage taken during his time in the forces. He explained that the footage in question came from the Roswell crash, that it included debris and recovery footage and of most importance autopsy footage".

This was the information given in the statement released by Ray Santilli and he later told me that the cameraman, "freelanced for Universal News as most qualified film cameramen did during that time and filmed Elvis with his backing band, live on stage, in late 1955". He added, "It was a short clip of film, around ten minutes, but nevertheless very good and yes, we purchased it".

Although it was initially claimed that the "three minutes of film" had been shot in the summer of 1955, here it's claimed that the filming took place "in late 1955" and the length of the film was "around ten minutes".

Another account states that the Elvis Presley film was shot, "during the _early_ part of 1955", when, "over a particular weekend", the cameraman had filmed "a variety of rock concerts and so forth at different high schools", although Santilli also told me it was "not a high school performance, but an open air one".

Having then been offered the "Roswell" film material, Santilli states, "we took an internal flight to his house which was some distance away from where we met him, and he showed us on film everything that you have now seen and that everyone has become interested in".

As to why the cameraman was in Cleveland in the first place, Santilli reportedly explained that the cameraman's son lived in Cleveland and when the cameraman visited on the 4th July weekend, he saw one of Ray Santilli's advertisements and contacted him.

There are obviously a number of apparent variances in these accounts, but this is the general story of how contact was first made with the cameraman, who "was in his eighties".

Accompanying Ray Santilli on that Cleveland trip was Gary Shoefield, Managing Director of Working Title Television, a subsidiary of the successful Working Title Films, itself a UK subsidiary of PolyGram Filmed Entertainment.

Santilli states, "While in Cleveland both Gary and Myself meet over 60 private collectors of photo/film and Rock & Roll memorabilia. We had placed advertisements and made it generally known to the music community we were there to buy anything of value. I have, since 1992 released over 5 music documentaries, all with rare early footage. It's my business. I have acquired private Elvis footage from a great many people".

"The whole reason for the trip was to meet collectors of primarily Elvis memorabilia. The fact is, myself and Gary Shoefield came back from that trip with 18 separate clips of film from 6 sources. One of those sources being the cameraman".

Santilli claims that whilst negotiations went smoothly, meeting the cameraman's asking price, rumoured to be $100,000, wasn't so easy and he eventually turned to a long time German business associate, Volker Spielberg.

"I first saw the film during my Cleveland trip and agreed to buy it, however I didn't have the money. A small down-payment was made in 92, but I couldn't raise the rest, which is why I turned to Volker, so he didn't pay the full amount. Volker put up most of the money on the condition he could have some film, and we pay him a percentage from any income we can derive from it".

Spielberg was based in Hamburg and his business interests included, "VS-Musik Verlag GmbH" and "Lollipop Musik Volker Spielberg KG". He has since moved to Austria.

In correspondence with Santilli, he revealed some more of the background relationship.

"Volker is one of the greatest extroverts you could ever wish to meet, he collects anything of real value, he is wealthy and has been a business associate and friend of mine for many years. That's how I know him. That's why I turned to him when I needed money".

In response to the question of whether Spielberg was therefore not only a collector of historic, archive film, but a collector per se, Santilli confirms, "Anything of real value, that's Volker, yes, per se".

During October 1995, French TV channel TF1 broadcast the results of their investigations.

Nicolas Maillard and Jacques Pradel revealed that whilst in Cleveland during 1992, not 1993 as had been claimed, Santilli and Shoefield met with Bill Randle, a prominent disc jockey in the 1950s. Randle had co-produced with Universal Pictures a film called "The Pied Piper of Cleveland", which contained archive concert footage taken during 1955 in Cleveland High Schools. The film featured Bill Haley and the Comets, Pat Boone and the then relatively unknown Elvis Presley, who had been invited by Randle.

Maillard confirmed, "They bought the option after 7 taped-hours of discussion for the contract".

Ray Santilli later explained, "In the final event Bill was paid some money for an option on third party film footage he purchased which we could never find at Universal Studios".

When Santilli first revealed details of the cameraman, he told a number of people that the cameraman's name was Jack Barnet(t). The TF1 broadcast also revealed that the "Pied Piper of Cleveland" film had been shot by director Arthur Cohen and a Chicago newsreel cameraman, called Jack Barnett.

Surely, this had to be the same person who had sold the film to Santilli.

But it was impossible. Barnett had never been in the army and died many years ago.

This was generally perceived to be an indictment of Santilli's story, but some further research reveals that Santilli had on a number of occasions, prior to the broadcast, confirmed that Jack Barnet(t) had been adopted as a pseudonym for the cameraman.

He subsequently explained to me, "I still maintain that the story of the film's acquisition is true, certain non-relevant details were only changed to stop people getting to the cameraman. Yes, the trip to Cleveland was 1992, Yes, during that trip I met Bill Randle, but he was one of many people we met. Yes, during that trip I met the cameraman and no, the cameraman's name is not Jack Barnet. I have always made it clear that the name had been adopted to protect the cameraman's real name.

In hindsight I could have handled the situation a little better, by not saying anything about the manner in which the film was acquired".

TF1 had also located Volker Spielberg's whereabouts in Austria and in a telephone conversation, he spoke with reporter Nicolas Maillard.

"I want to be left alone. I'm a collector, I want to be out, and I want to have no contact with nobody regarding this matter because this is my personal thing. Simply, I'm not interested. You see, the whole matter is of no interest to me, I have made up my mind. I have my belief and that's it and I got what I want. I'm happy and that's it".

"What have I to do with this? As to my knowledge, I'll keep all the cans, yes, as to my knowledge, that's all I can tell you. Well, as to my knowledge I possess all the film reels. Whether this is true or not, that's not up to me to judge, but that is my belief, yes".

During discussions with Santilli, he mentioned the magnitude of his success in acquiring Elvis Presley memorabilia during that trip.

"I came back with many hours of rare Elvis film, so rare that PolyGram commissioned a report by ex-BMG (RCA) director Roger Seaman".

Santilli also recalled a newspaper feature on the Elvis memorabilia and I was able to locate a copy of this. Dated 17 August, 1992, the Daily Mirror article is headed "ELVIS: his last amazing letter" and refers to Ray Santilli and one of his companies, "The Merlin Group".

The article also contains some pictures of Elvis Presley which had never previously been published and details some of the considerable memorabilia which was to feature in a forthcoming two-hour documentary, called "Private Elvis".

A First Viewing

The story stops there until November of 1994 when with the money in hand I flew over without warning and tried; this time I succeeded".

One of the first people to become aware of the film's alleged acquisition was Reg Presley, lead singer of the successful 60s band, "The Troggs". Presley's interest in "crop circles" and the subject of UFOs was well known and during some unrelated discussions with Presley's manager, Santilli wondered if Presley might be interested in seeing some of the film he had acquired.

Shortly after Christmas 1994, Presley saw part of the footage. He was already scheduled to appear some two weeks later on "Good Morning with Anne and Nick" and although ostensibly invited to discuss crop circles, he also revealed details of the film he had been shown. On the subject of the Roswell