There are very few researchers who have ever heard on the ‘tent footage’ section of the alien autopsy film. Why ? Because it has never yet been featured on TV or video. This poor quality, black and white film was the first section of film shown to researchers (myself included) by Ray Santilli way back in 1995. It is much less graphic in nature compared to the autopsy sequence and hence it has faded into obscurity. However, careful study and research into this section of film can add much to the search for the facts concerning the whole of the alien autopsy footage. Here we have the full story for the first time of the so-called ‘tent footage’. Study the following carefully as it may have an influence on your opinions on the alien autopsy film itself.
To many people I am one of Ray Santilli’s biggest supporters, and therefore a supporter of the authenticity of his ‘alien autopsy’ film. I have been accused at times of being on Santilli’s payroll at best, and at worst even involved in helping him ‘hoax’ the whole alien autopsy film, and probably just about anything in-between.
It is fair to say, that in the media and in my book (co-authored with Michael Hesemann) BEYOND ROSWELL, I have given Santilli’s films every opportunity to be proven authentic by either himself or other researchers in different parts of the world. I think it is fair to say that the alien autopsy film has become the most controversial piece of film in the entire history of UFO research, a controversy that still continues today.
Despite my apparent support for the possibility of the film being authentic my research into it has not stopped. However, having few leads to follow, no film with image to analyses, and no cameraman to question, there seemed little either myself or other researchers could do. This all changed in1998.
On 30 Monday, I received and e-mail message from a gentleman by the name of Keith Goodyer. This was not someone with whom I had communicated before and his e-mail message heading quickly drew my attention. “Blowing The Whistle - Roswell.” The message went on to say, “OK, I know something about the Santilli footage, I can identify without a shadow of a doubt, one of the people in it. Call me.” It was as simple as that. Were we about to discover information about one of the ‘surgeons’ in the film which could help authenticate the film, or was it something else ? A phone call to Keith Goodyer soon provided me with the answers.
In that first telephone conversation with Keith Goodyer I was quickly learn that he had information that did not support the authenticity of the film, in fact, quite the opposite. Keith was very busy setting up a new company at the time so I arranged to phone him again and record and interview with him over the phone. This took place on June 11th,1998. This, in part, is what he had to say: Keith Goodyer (KG), Philip Mantle (PM):
KG: OK. Basically, erm, I had er, an association, I had a colleague erm, that had an audio/visual company, erm making, at the time they were making a lot of Karaoke videos for third party publishers, erm, and soundtracks for children’s films and that sort of thing. I actually first came across this company, erm, in the capacity as a games programmer, erm, and in fact contracted them to provide music for some video games that I was working on........ I spent a lot of time in their studios with them.... So I would say, most of the staff in there I was well acquainted with and had a very good relationship with erm, owners of the company...About a year and a half ago I went to actually visit this company, I hadn’t seen them for a while, it was all, it was just a social visit, just pop-in to see how everybody was, and, while I was there the phone wrung, and, it, erm, the secretary put the phone call to the colleague I was with, the owner of the company, erm, who had a phone conversation with Ray Santilli. Erm, when the phone, the conversation had finished, I said to my colleague ‘ the Ray Santilli’. He said, well, what do you mean ‘the Ray Santilli’, I said the guy with the Roswell film. With that my colleague actually fell about almost in hysterics, I mean he would have fallen of his chair think, given a chance, and he said didn’t you realise we made that. ...He said, no, we made that, didn’t you recognise Elliot. And I said well, no, quite frankly I didn’t recognise anybody. Erm, and then, he said, er, well, you know, we made that, that was Elliot...Eventually he took me into the studio, erm, he showed me a video tape of what, I didn’t recognise as being the Roswell footage, and he showed me some film, but it was quite clearly I could see the main character in this footage was Elliot, who once was one of the sound engineers there, erm, but it wasn’t what I recognised as the Roswell footage. Erm, and then I sort of, I wasn’t, at that time, that [particularly impressed, erm, I just thought well maybe he thought he’d made something, but that wasn’t the Santilli, certainly wasn’t the Santilli footage...He gave me a copy of the video cassette...and I went off quite happy. Erm, one night I’m sat here, whenever it was I first contacted you Phil”
PM: Erm, it was March the 30th.
KG: March the 30th...I was sat in, sat in my office at home, surfing the internet, and, I had no real contrived or planned reason, just typed in Roswell into Yahoo to do a search, erm just to see, you know, see what the latest is, ...and I found a page, erm, that was, erm, where they were doing analysis of the tent footage. Now I’d never realised that there were, I’d never followed the story close enough to know that there was different segments of footage and different pieces of this so-called Roswell film, and erm, and I clearly identified the tent sequence with the video that I’d seen. Well within 10 minutes I was downstairs searching through my video library trying to find this video cassette that I’d been given, and basically matched up frame for frame with the copy that I had which clearly showed Elliot the sound engineer with the pages on the internet and sure enough the tent footage was the same footage that claimed to be made, by er, by my colleagues, and was indisputable that, that was Elliot. I watched the film through and through again without a shadow of a doubt it was definitely Elliot, and it definitely matched up with the pages on the internet reporting to be the tent footage.
PM: Yes.
KG: At which point, I thought mmm, I should inform somebody about this, and just found a few key figures, there were er, there were erm, involved in investigating Roswell from the UK end, and erm, sent you an e-mail”.
Keith Goodyer went on to tell me that the company in question was called AK MUSIC based in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire. A check by my colleague Tim Matthews, at Companies House, discovered that the company’s correct name was A.R.K. Music Limited and it had subsequently gone into liquidation. Documents obtained at Companies House revealed the names and addresses of the directors of A.R.K. and their names were confirmed by Keith Goodyer as those claiming to have made the ‘tent footage’ film. A full copy of the interview with Keith Goodyer was released by me on the internet and it caused quite a lot of interest, quite naturally. Even Ray Santilli himself responded:
Wednesday, June 17, 1998. TENT FOOTAGE. ”The Tent Footage.
Philip Mantle has informed me that he has secured an interview from someone claiming to have information regarding the ‘Tent Footage’.
As a great deal has been made of the so-called ‘Tent Footage’ I would like to clarify the situation and place the following on record:
The Tent Footage was the first film material I collected from the cameraman, it was in the form of 16mm film and in very poor condition. I brought it back to England and asked a studio facility in Buckinghamshire to retrieve whatever image they could from it. A few weeks after delivery the studio presented me with the film which has become known as the ‘Tent Footage’ I was told that this was all that could be retrieved from the film.
I had informed the cameraman by telephone that we were able to retrieve some images and indeed showed the film to Philip Mantle and other interested parties.
I returned to the States later to collect the main film and showed the ‘Tent Footage’ on VHS to the cameraman. At this point he stated that he DID NOT remember either the image being portrayed or the style in which it had been filmed. I was concerned but collected the remaining film (which was in far better condition) and returned to the UK.
Upon my return I contacted the studio to find out more about the images from the ‘Tent Footage’. I got the impression that as a joke the film had been interfered with, but nobody owned up. This meant that with regard to the ‘Tent Footage’ I was uncertain as to what was real and what was not, and if the film had been interfered with, I could not use it. THIS IS WHY I COMPLETELY PULLED BACK FROM USING THE FILM.
As a result, I INFORMED ALL PARTIES that had come into contact with the ‘Tent Footage (and I am sure they will confirm this) that I was NOT CONFIDENT with regard to the ‘Tent Footage’ and further that it should NOT be used in broadcasters including Fox (Kiviat).
Indeed when Kiviat wanted to use the ‘Tent Footage’ for a subsequent program I was totally against it. However he still wished to use it and to that end he provided me with a written disclaimer dated November1995 which was to be used during the broadcast. In the end I won the point and the film was not used. The situation regarding the ‘Tent Footage’ was known to all, it was not appropriate to use as it may have been interfered with.
It was the only thing I could do, as I did not want it to compromise the main autopsy film. I believe I did the responsible thing in removing the ‘Tent Footage’ from circulation at the very beginning.
My position regarding the autopsy film and the reels recovered remains unchanged. Any discussion regarding the ‘Tent Footage’ is completely irrelevant. I DID NOT USE THAT STUDIO AGAIN, AND NEITHER THE STUDIO OR ANYONE ASSOCIATED WITH THE STUDIO HAD ANYTHING WHATSOEVER TO DO WITH THE AUTOPSY FILM. THE AUTOPSY FILM IS WHAT IT IS, AND NOTHING WILL CHANGE THAT.
Ray Santilli.”
No sooner had I made contact when, from completely out-of-the-blue, I received a phone call from the USA from TV producer Bob Kiviat. Kiviat went on to inform me that he was now working on a new show this time detailing the alien autopsy film as a fake. Without any hesitation I put him in contact with Keith Goodyer. This contact lead to Kiviat and his team locating more people involved in the alleged events, including one of the ‘actors’ in the actual tent footage. This was Elliott as referred to by Keith Goodyer, and an associate of his by the name of Bruce Barlow. Barlow had originally released the tent footage on a video entitled ‘Penetrating The Web 2’ Aliens-Reason To Believe. Questioned at the time of the video’s release in1995, Barlow would not say from whom he had obtained the tent footage. I’ll come back to Barlow shortly.
Although Kiviat’s new show, broadcast on the Fox Network in the USA on December 28,1998, did interview Elliott, it did not interview Keith Bateman or Andy Price-Watts from AK Music. Elliott’s interview for Kiviat stated quite categorically that AK Music was indeed paid by Ray Santilli to fake the tent footage. He was one of those on screen in the tent footage and he was not an actor, but a technician working at the time for AK Music. Bruce Barlow was also briefly interviewed again stating quite clearly that the tent footage was indeed a hoax created by AK Music for Ray Santilli.
In early January 1999, I was contacted by Nick Fielding, a journalist working for the UK national newspaper ‘The Mail On Sunday’. Nick had followed with interest the Kiviat show and was wondering if I could help him with some information. I gave him the background to the story of how Keith Goodyer and informed us of the hoaxing by AK Music and I also gave him the telephone number of AK Music in Milton Keynes. I was also quoted by Fielding for his forthcoming article.
The article in question appeared in ‘The Mail On Sunday’ on 17 Sunday. Keith Bateman of AK Music had co-operated fully with Nick Fielding and was even photographed holding the fake alien head used in the filming of the tent footage. The AK Music team seemed to back-up Ray Santilli claiming that he had brought film to them and that they had tricked him, rather than he had paid them to fake the footage in the first place. In the newspaper article their story went like this:
“ I the summer of 1994 they were approached by Santilli, who they had known for many years and who occasionally bought some of their video’s. Santilli told them he had a video of aliens, but it was of poor quality. Could they enhance it? They tried, but could get nothing from the film. Santilli was disappointed and the matter was dropped. But knowing Santilli was in the market for this kind of material, Bateman and Price-Watts decided to try to make their own version. Their research led them to a story already well established in UFO mythology - of how, after a spacecraft had supposedly crashed at Roswell, an alien had been taken to a barn nearby where a medical examination had taken place. President Truman was rumoured to have visited during the operation. “We found a barn in the quiet village of Rodgemont, Bedfordshire, through a farmer I knew” said Price-Watts. “I had an old paraffin lamp and we brought along a table, some sheets, overalls and rubber gloves. We filmed it in the evening to make it look as if it had been shot in the dark. The gloves-marigolds-looked too modern so we had to discard them. We tried to get a mannequin from a local store, but it was impossible. Elstree Studios offered to make us one for £25,000, which was ludicrous. In the end we used a wig holder we bought for a few pounds, which Elliott Willis, our tape recorder, transformed using painted orange peel for the eyes. Elliot and the local butcher, Roger Baker, played the two medical staff. Roger got the part because he could supply the chickens guts we used as the aliens innards. We were thinking of using pigs guts, but they looked too human.”
As they were filming, the farmer walked in to see what they were doing. I suddenly thought we could use him,
said Bateman. There was an old scarecrow in the corner of the barn and we got the coat from it, put it on him and
he had a little cameo role as President Truman. We could hardly stop ourselves laughing as we shot the video,
which took about an hour and a half to complete. Andy Price-Watts 12 year old son played the alien, with his head
covered by the sheet and the dummy head placed on top. “We used a Sony video camera on a tripod and kept jogging
it to give the impression it was being held” said Price-Watts. The resulting film was edited down to six minutes.
Shot in colour, it was processed to black and white an animators in the studio drew scratch marks on computer and
overlaid this on to the film. It was then transferred between different video formats to make it as grainy as
possible. “We went to see Santilli and told him we had some alien footage which we had bought in the States “ said
Bateman. “He told us we had been conned and didn’t think it was very good. He said it should have been clearer and
should also have had a restricted notice on it.
Bateman got the film back, superimposed the bogus
classification message and sent it back to Santilli, who told the two men he could not use it.
Early in l'année suivante, Bateman said he was surprised to hear Santilli’s friend and UFO enthusiast Reg Presley of the Sixties pop group The Troggs, mention the tent footage in a TV interview. Despite having rejected their film, Santilli refused to criticise it in public. That summer Bateman and Price-Watts decided to put their film out on a video being made by producer Bruce Barlow called ‘Penetrating The Web 2’. “In the meantime Santilli had apparently acquired his alien autopsy film and, unknown to us, was planning a huge media launch in a number of different countries,” said Price-Watts. “I had already got a slot on GMTV to talk about our film and when Santilli heard about this he was not pleased. He flew back from holiday in America and came straight to our offices, telling us our film would mess up his launch. He offered to pay us if we agreed not to promote the film for 10 weeks, which we agreed to.” Santilli’s alien autopsy film was released in the August of1995 and at no time in any forum at that time did he denounce the tent footage as a fake, despite, as we now know, he knew it was.
Bruce Barlow, the video producer named by Bateman and Price-Watts, tells a rather different story.
It was sometime during 1993, that Bruce Barlow, head of a small video production company, called ‘Trans Video Productions’, was contacted by Keith Bateman, one half of a partnership that owned an audio/visual company with the title of A.K. Music. Keith Bateman was hoping that Barlow could provide them with some footage, because a regular client of theirs was thinking of putting together a UFO documentary. Bateman, and his partner, Andy Price-Watts, had got to know Barlow, when Trans Video Productions had used A.K. Music’s premises to film some interviews for their recently released video ‘Penetrating The Web, Aliens or Illusions’.
The video contained interviews with many well-known UFO researchers including, Jenny Randles and John Spencer, both part of BUFORA. The video looked at the evidence of UFO sightings, and various explanations were offered regarding their existence. It is therefore not surprising that A.K. Music thought that Trans Video Productions might be a good source to obtain some UFO footage from. Barlow was amazed, however, because A.K. Music were noted mainly for audio music tapes, and Karaoke videos. Bruce Barlow tried to find out who A.K. Music’s client was, but Bateman was not forthcoming. He did hint however that it was somebody who regularly brought back music footage from the USA and had recently uncovered some never seen before of Elvis Presley.
After some discussion Barlow told Bateman that they had used all the material, which Trans Video Productions had bought the rights to in their last production and therefore did not have any footage, which could be used, and the brief conversation was then brought to an end. Barlow then remembers having a brief discussion with his young video editor regarding the peculiarity of A.K. Music putting together a UFO documentary. Barlow then contacted the Magnum Music Group, who affirmed that they had heard about the Elvis Presley footage from Ray Santilli of the Merlin Group. At the time Barlow did not really put any serious significance on any connection between Ray Santilli and A.K. Music’s client who wanted to make a UFO documentary, because he believed that Bateman was literally dangling a carrot. Not being that interested at the time Barlow put this issue to the back of his mind.
In the summer of 1995, Bruce Barlow and his colleague Natalie Martin of Trans Video Productions were adding the finishing touches to their video ‘Penetrating the Web 2- Reasons To Believe’. This second video like the first, also contained interviews with many leasing UFO researchers including Budd Hopkins and Linda Moulton Howe, and carried on the discussion about the UFO phenomenon. Where ‘Penetrating The Web, Aliens or Illusions’ had left off. The editing of the second video was nearly complete, when one morning Keith Bateman of A.K. Music rang the doorbell of Trans Video Productions office, and over coffee Bateman and Barlow discussed the possibility of Trans Video Productions, providing A.K. Music with some footage for an impending Karaoke video. It was during these negotiations that Bateman asked Barlow what production he was working on at that time, and a short discussion ensued regarding ‘Reasons To Believe’. This then led to Bateman asking Barlow if he had read about the Roswell ‘alien autopsy’ footage, Barlow said he had read something about it. Barlow was particularly interested when he learned from Bateman that it was Ray Santilli of the Merlin Group, who had the footage. Trans Video Productions had often acted as intermediaries between Ray Santilli and the Magnum Music Group, because Santilli was often slow and unreliable in supplying master tapes for editing and duplication, which Magnum Music had bought the rights to.
Bateman then asked Barlow what his opinion was regarding the authenticity of the footage (alien autopsy), and Barlow replied that he wasn’t sure if the film was genuine, but that someone was going to make a lot of money from it. Then Bateman suddenly announced that it was A.K. Music who had made the footage. At first Barlow was incredulous with disbelief, and refused to take Bateman’s confession seriously. Bateman continued to insist however, that A.K. Music had voided the alien autopsy sequence. Barlow, and Natalie Martin then listened carefully as Bateman gradually told his story. Bateman maintained that Ray Santilli, who was a regular client of theirs, had contacted A.K. Music and asked them to shoot some footage, which could later be used as a reconstruction of an alien autopsy. Santilli has stated that he wanted footage of this kind to use in a project he had in mind. It suddenly dawned on Barlow that it must have been Ray Santilli who had the idea for a UFO documentary, when Bateman had contacted him in1993. When questioned Bateman confirmed this.
According to Bateman, Santilli paid A.K. Music a basic fee, but then decided not to use the footage. When A.K. Music heard that Santilli was now using their footage (the tent footage), and stating it was authentic, they were less than happy, particularly when it became evident that Santilli was going to make a lot of money from it. It also became obvious however, that Santilli must have had some other material shot elsewhere, which he was now pushing rather than the material that A.K. Music had put together. It was then suggested by Bateman, that rather than waste the footage which A.K. Music had shot it could be used in ‘Reason To Believe ‘.
Barlow realised that this suggestion could have real money making potential, especially as the subject matter was being covered in the national press, but at this stage he remained cautious, and calmly asked Bateman what kind of deal he was after. Bateman then suggested that in exchange for the material, A.K. Music would own half of Trans Video’s new production, but in return A.K. Music would also provide the music, the final mix taking place at A.K. Music’s studio. Bateman said that A.K. Music would undertake to design the video sleeve, and went on to say that A.K. Music promised to publicise the fact that they were in possession of autopsy footage, which Bateman pledged would get shown on national TV via A.K. ‘s music contacts. Barlow admits to feeling excitement at this stage, as the full potential of the deal became evident, but managed to retain a relaxed composure as he cross-examined Bateman regarding the impending availability of the material. Barlow was more than a little surprised when Bateman informed him that he could pick out which pieces he wanted and take them away that afternoon. As far as content was concerned ‘Reason To Believe’ was actually complete, and Barlow realised that whatever material he obtained would have to be tacked on to the end of the production. Bateman was not really concerned however, with how much of the material Barlow wanted to use, he was just overjoyed that the deal looked set to go ahead and left the Trans Video Productions office intent on telling his partner Andy Price-Watts the good news.
On the afternoon of Bateman’s visit, which was either in 1995 or July 1995 , Bruce Barlow went to A.K. Music’s studio and Andy Price-Watts and Keith Bateman handed over a low band U-matic tape, which Barlow took back to his offices and he and Natalie Martin then sat and watched it. The footage that that was supplied to Barlow lasted around 20 minutes and showed what appeared to be two doctors in white coats examining an alien figure, which lay on a table, the figure was covered up to the head by a white sheet. large dark eyes were in evidence, and a figure moved constantly around in the foreground. The whole scene seemed to be lit by a lantern of some kind. The footage was not that dark however, it was also in colour and looked fairly modern and new. Bateman explained that this was not a problem as they had supplied Santilli with several black and white copies which had been scratched with a computer programme to make it look like it was an old film. They also supplied each copy in slightly differing darkness Bateman said, and some had a slight pink or blue tinge to them.
Trans Video Productions finally settled on two minutes of the footage and used it in their ‘Reason To Believe’. It is interesting to note that Chris Carey, a colleague of Santilli’s, had emphasised the looping of the ‘tent footage’, when he was showing it to TV producer Bob Kiviat and the US Networks, but Bruce Barlow says he was given 20 minutes of footage none of which looped. The material was then edited on to the end of the video. The female presenter on the video states that the footage was sent to Tans Video Productions and it is up to the viewer to decide if the footage is genuine or not.
Once the video was completed, A.K. Music were as good as their word, promoting the video content to people within the various TV channels and then the telephone began to ring. Requests came in from GMTV and Channel 4’s ‘Big Breakfast, both wanting to be the first to screen the footage. Right from the start, A.K. Music declared that they wanted to remain in the background, and the understanding was that if Trans Video Productions should be contacted by Ray Santilli, then Barlow would state that the footage had been sent to them from an unknown source. If Santilli then approached A.K. Music they would deny all knowledge of the origins of the Trans Video Productions copy of the ‘tent footage’, and suggested that it may have been leaked from Santilli’s own organisation, as there were several copies. Meanwhile, GMTV and The Big Breakfast, continued to wrangle over the showing of the footage. Natalie Martin, Trans Video Production’s video editor was the intermediary who negotiated over a period of time with the two competing TV shows. It became quite a battle between the two morning programmes and Natalie Martin was constantly on the telephone to one or the other of the two competing shows. In the end it was decided that as GMTV was the more serious of the two shows it seemed wiser to let them screen the footage. It was arranged that it would be Natalie Martin who would go on air and talk about the material. A complete copy of ‘Reason To Believe’ was sent to GMTV and a date was then set for the screening.
The video sleeve had now been designed by Phil Jarman who worked for A.K. Music and 5000 copies printed. Bateman phoned and asked if 50 copies of the video could be provided for promotional purposes and they were then sent to A.K.’s studio. It was now that things started to go wrong. Keith Bateman claims that in the evening on the same day that Trans Video Productions had provided them with the promotional videos, he and Andy were sat on the floor of A.K. Music’s office surrounded by the videos and the inlays, when Ray Santilli walked in. Bateman told Barlow that he thought someone from Channel 4, possibly upset at loosing out to GMTV, had tipped off Santilli who was thought to be abroad at the time. If the footage was shown on GMTV Santilli’s contract with Channel 4 (who were making a Roswell documentary that had exclusive rights to Santilli’s autopsy film in the UK) would be broken. Aware of the most obvious source, Santilli realised that the footage must have been provided by A.K. Music, and he had flown straight back from the USA where he was holidaying, making his way quickly to A.K. Music’s offices.
The next morning Bateman phoned Barlow and relayed to him what had happened. Bateman said that Santilli was offering them £5,000 to stop the screening of the footage on GMTV. Barlow was adamant that he wanted to go ahead with the TV screening, but Bateman and Price-Watts now wanted to back away from the whole deal. One or the other of A.K’s partners continually phoned Barlow in the hope of persuading him to change his mind, because despite of their differences regarding the ‘tent footage’, A.K. Music wanted to continue working with/for Santilli. Finally Barlow agreed, he says against his better judgement, to stop the GMTV screening. The money was therefore divided £2,000 to A.K. Music and £3,000 to Trans Video Productions, and the latter delivered to their premises by Bateman, who handed Natalie Martin a brown envelope which contained the £3,000 in cash. Barlow says he has always harboured doubts about the total sum quoted however, believing that a much larger amount could actually have been involved.
Although Trans Video Productions agreed to withdraw the ‘tent footage’ from GMTV, Bruce Barlow went ahead with the release of ‘Reason To Believe’, which still had the tent footage edited on at the end. A copy of the new video release was sent to UFO researcher Philip Mantle so that he could review it for BUFORA’s publication ‘UFO TIMES’. Shortly after Barlow received a telephone call from Mantle who questioned Barlow about the origins of the ‘tent footage’. Barlow maintained his silence as to where he had obtained the footage from however.
There is a great deal more to this story, and the above are extracts taken from the booklet ‘AN ALIEN DECEPTION - An Account of a Twentieth Century Hoax’ by Mo Allison and used here with permission of Bruce Barlow. The booklet comes complete with Barlow’s new video showing the entire fake tent footage and interviews with those tasking part in it. The video, along with ‘Reason To Believe’ and the booklet ‘AN ALIEN DECEPTION’ can be ordered in both PAL or NTSC via the internet at: https://www.webvert.co.uk/alienvideos , or write to: Alien Videos, P.O. Box 6036, Leighton Buzzard, Befordshire, England, LU7 8BT. The video and the booklet are £20.50 including P&P. Overseas orders can be made via the internet.
Bruce Barlow, who also took part in Bob Kiviat’s TV show ‘The World’s Greatest Hoaxes’, was also interviewed especially for this feature.
PM: Why did you not tell Bob Digby, one of your colleagues working on ‘Reason To Believe’, and a director of BUFORA, that the ‘tent footage you used was a hoax?
BB: At the time I had given my word not to disclose any information about the footage.
PM: Why are there differences in your story and that of Keith Bateman and Andy Price-Watts ?
BB: I can only think they want to keep certain aspects quiet for what reason I’m not sure. But it has just come to light recently by speaking to the butcher that his real name is not Ian as I was lead to believe. (The butcher is one of the ‘actors’ used in the tent footage).
PM: If Bob Digby put up one third of the money for Penetrating The Web, why did you not inform him of what was happening?
BB: Bob Digby only put up one third of the money for Penetrating the Web 1, not 2, and at the time of production he was working abroad.
PM: Did Keith Bateman state quite clearly to you that Ray Santilli had paid them to fake the tent footage film?
BB: Yes, Keith Bateman told me they had been paid a fee to make the tent footage but never told me how much.
PM: Ray Santilli claims that he took genuine footage to A.K. Music for them to enhance and that A.K. Music conned him. I your opinion, why is this statement incorrect?
BB: A.K. Music had no facilities to for tele-cine, all they had was an audio recording studio which we used for our interviews for Penetrating The Web 1 and a two machine beta edit suite. They had no means of converting cine film and no knowledge of this. I think this is just a story made up by Santilli in an attempt to shift the blame for the tent footage.
PM: Have you anything further to add to the story?
BB: I have always been surprised that he picked A.K. Music to make the tent footage as they had never done anything in the video line other than Karaoke or animation.
Before completing this article I have offered Ray Santilli the right to reply and this is what he has to say regarding the above:
Philip, I don’t have much to add from what I have already given you. What I will say is that the real story has been augmented by the people in Milton Keynes, enough to confuse and cloud the real events and give them credibility. The fact is: I did not commission the tent footage they have and the story about the money paid to them is nonsense. They got publicity for creating a film I did not use or want, rather interesting what the press will take as a worthwhile story. Ultimately I don’t care anymore. If people think it is linked to the real film it’s a shame. With that and some of the nonsense piles onto the film from other quarters the real story of what the film is will never see the light of day. It’s not my loss!
You and many others spent a great deal of time checking me out over the years. Have you done the same with the people in Milton Keynes? If not maybe you should. I don’t like the heading ‘Santilli’s Tent Footage Takes a Tumble’. It’s not my tent footage!! I would be grateful if you make that point.....
Ray Santilli, Saturday, 17 April, 1999.
Keith Bateman of the now defunct A.K. Music also replied. In reply to a letter I sent him Keith Bateman telephoned me on Monday 19th April. During the conversation I had with Keith I asked him quite categorically if Ray Santilli had paid and commissioned them to fake the ‘tent footage’. Keith informed me in no uncertain words that Ray Santilli had not, I repeat, had not paid them or commissioned them to fake the ‘tent footage’. Instead, it was indeed they who had attempted to pull the wool over Santilli’s eyes.
So there you have it, the saga of the ‘tent footage’ is finally revealed. Accusations and counter accusations, comments and opinions, it is all there. Keith Bateman maintains that they tried to dupe Ray Santilli a fact seemingly supported by Santilli himself. While others such as Elliott Willis and Bruce Barlow state the opposite, that Santilli did commission A.K. Music to fake the ‘tent footage’. You will have to weigh up both sides of the argument and make up your own mind who you believe. In 2002 I took part in a small TV documentary for UK Horizons. This show was a hoax special and broadcast on April 1st (April fools day). Keith Bateman also took part but I did not have the chance to meet him. Bateman still stuck to his story that it was he who fooled Santilli and that Santilli had not paid them to fake any film at all. Ray Santilli was asked to take part in the show but politely declined the offer ?
What we can say with certainty is that the ‘tent footage’ section of the alien autopsy film is indeed a fake. What this says about the remainder of the alien autopsy film I will again leave you to decide.
One can not help being suspicious of course, not just because of the fake ‘tent footage’ but the fact still remains that Santilli has not provided anyone with 16mm film stock for analysis that depicts an image of the ‘alien creature’, nor has anyone seen any of this film stock either. There is yet another autopsy film viewed only by a select myself included, that has not been released into the public domain. No one knows if Santilli’s mysterious cameraman really exists. All of this, and more, when added together is enough to perhaps make anyone suspicious, a fact even acknowledge by Ray Santilli himself. Until Santilli and his associates do release film stock for analysis, and others speak to his cameraman then the debates about the alien autopsy film’s authenticity will continue to rumble.
