Unless you’re really into ufology, the name Ray Santilli probably won’t ring any bells. But if you can remember the 1980s, his impact on your life most likely still resonates.



As a wannabe rock star, producer and later entrepreneur, Santilli (left) worked with England’s biggest and brightest stars, among them the Thompson Twins, Boy George, Hot Chocolate, Leo Sayer, and the Tourists, two of whose former members, Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart, conquered the pop charts as The Eurythmics. In 1982, he formed AMP Entertainment, where he continued to promote, produce and manage rock and roll acts. Were he your typical rock hustler, we would probably remember him in the same breath as other astute music businessmen, people the likes of Malcolm McLaren, or Russell Simmons.

As it turns out, we will most likely remember his contribution to ufology for he, Santilli, brought the alien autopsy footage to light. He claimed that he came across the movie accidentally when looking for rare videos of Elvis Presley. He allegedly bought it from an ex-military cameraman named Jack Barnett, who had filmed the original in Roswell, and secretly made a copy of it. Santilli produced, as evidence, a written affidavit from this alleged cameraman to verify the film’s authenticity.

Odd. Barnett, an American GI, for some reason decided to write out the document in British English, with color spelled ‘colour,’ and phrases such as “in hospital” as opposed to “at the hospital,” as an American would tend to say.

Santilli claimed to have bought the film for $150,000 (US), with the intention of either distributing it commercially, or selling it to a major media outlet for a profit. Sure enough, he sold it to Fox, where it aired as Alien Autopsy: (Fact or Fiction?), a television special hosted by actor Jonathan Frakes (click here to see the entire program).

Tests indicated that the leader tape was manufactured in 1946, but Santilli, refused testing on any other content. My guess is that the rest of the film is of a much more recent vintage. In 2006, a Santilli associate, visual artist John Humphreys, admitted to the press that he created the two dummies used in the film (Foam sharply noticed the difference in the eyes between these two). The confession came amid a publicity blitz for the release of Alien Autopsy, a feature film about the clip's origins.

Around this time, Santilli gave what one might best describe as a half-confession. He insisted that he did, in fact, purchase an authentic movie of an alien autopsy. However, clumsy handling of the original over the years, and its poor condition resulted in the film's deterioration. Santilli said that he recreated the missing portions of the tape. What the viewer sees, therefore, is a blend of actual and recreated footage.

Okay. Sounds like a dog-ate-my-homework type of excuse. But if another autosy film existed (and we have good reason to think that it might), where did that one come from? What was it meant to accomplish?

I have read some rather dubious pieces hinting that sources close to Santilli stipulated that the tape actually came into the impresario’s possession by way of a man who seemed to them a CIA contract agent. The name of this putative spy? William Moore. Moore always claimed to have had deep intelligence connections, among them a mysterious USAF NCO named Master Sgt. Richard Doty, and/or his superior, codenamed FALCON.

Whether Moore had anything to do with Santilli or not, Sgt. Doty claims to have seen the authentic version many years before Santilli's airing of the fake one. And in both the “Alien Autopsy Film,” and in the MJ-12 Documents, we see a common modus operandi.

As one of the military personnel connected to MJ-12 in the present day, Doty poses a number of interesting questions. For starters, why does his name come up so often as a source for ufological information, especially those regarding potential UFO disclosures?

To answer this, we have to look at MJ-12 in context of other efforts to disseminate information about UFOs by government agents. You see, the documents received by Jaime Shandera didn’t actually originate the story of MJ-12. And from what other researchers tell us, the US military has shown considerable interest in shaping ufological thought.