CNI News - Volume 18.5
May 16, 1996
Published by the ISCNI News Center
Editor: Michael Lindemann
The stories in this edition of CNI News are:
1) "BEST" BIGFOOT FILM NOW CALLED HOAX
2) SAUCER HOVERS OVER NEW JERSEY TOWN
3) IN PURSUIT OF THE MYSTERY CAMERAMAN
Does His Story Indicate a Real Crash Location and Date?
4) THE GREAT SOUTH TEXAS CHUPACABRA HUNT
5) "IS THAT THE CHUPACABRA CHOO-CHOO?"
Reflections on a Phenomenon, by Bufo Calvin
ISCNI encourages you to respond to stories in CNI News.
* Public responses can be posted on the Forum message board in "News
Center Feedback"
* Private responses can be emailed to ISCNI, subj: CNI News Editor
The subject matter of CNI News is inherently controversial, and the views and
opinions reported in the news are not necessarily those of ISCNI or its
staff.
The next edition of CNI News will appear on Monday, May 20.
========================================================
1) "BEST" BIGFOOT FILM NOW CALLED HOAX
[In 1967, a man named Roger Patterson claimed he had filmed a Bigfoot. The
so-called Patterson film has since become famous as the best photo evidence
that Bigfoot might be a genuine creature resembling a large ape. Patterson's
Bigfoot, which is evidently female, is relatively clear in the brief film
clip, and experts have claimed that its gait is so unusual that it probably
is not a human in a costume. Now, however, a person has come forward who
claims to have helped create the film. CNI News credits Rob McConnell,
publisher of the 'X' Chronicles, for this story.]
By Rob McConnell
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada.
Wednesday, May 15, 1996.
The infamous Bigfoot photograph/film by Roger Patterson which was allegedly
filmed in 1967 has been uncovered as a hoax.
Harry Kemball, Director and Screenwriter at Golden Eagle Productions told THE
'X' CHRONICLES researchers that he was at the CanWest 16mm Film Editing Room
in 1967 when Roger Patterson and his friends put together hi sBigFoot Hoax on
16mm film.
According to Kemball, they all laughed and joked about the rental of the
gorilla costume and the construction of the Big Feet.
One of Kemball's extra tall buddies played the role of Bigfoot.
Patterson and his crew carefully chose muddy ground so that the footprints
would expand.
The film crew carefully shot it on 16mm Kodak EF High Speed Color Positive
film stock and when the film is force processed in so-called "Hot Soup," the
film grain is enlarged to add to the sense of mystery.
They added a shaky camera zoom with the right amount of "out of focus" to
complete the deception.
Kemball, who is a graduate in comparative anatomy studies, states, "This
creature does not and never has existed."
The 'X' Chronicles is in possession of a signed statement by Kemball to the
statements contained in this release.
========================================================
2) SAUCER HOVERS OVER NEW JERSEY TOWN
[CNI News thanks Masinaigan and UFO ROUNDUP for permission to reprint this
item.]
Sunday night, May 5, 1996, at approximately 10:12 p.m. EDT, a party of
amateur astronomers set up their telescope on a hillside in Wayne, New
Jersey. The group hoped to obtain good views of the planet Venus, then
prominent on the western horizon.
As the first astronomer peered through the telescope's eyepiece, he saw "a
bright flash near Venus." He said, "At first I thought it was some sort of
meteor exploding in the upper atmosphere."
Another member of the group, who'd set up their telescope on Brandon Avenue
near Route 23, said the sky explosion was "a whitish green color."
The first astronomer looked again and saw a gray saucer with "two bright
lights on the top of the dome. It was about the size of a two-bedroom house."
He said he had the saucer in view for about 20 seconds. He spotted two
transparent "glass blisters" fore and aft of the saucer's dome.
The UFO performed no aerobatic maneuvers--it merely hovered in place. At the
end of the 20 seconds, it "flew away to the north very fast."
Note: Wanaque Reservoir, long a UFO hot spot, lies about 25 miles north of
Wayne, New Jersey. Most recently, the area reported many UFO sightings during
February and March of 1996.
In related news, an AOL source reports that there has been heavy UFO activity
recently in New Fairfield, Connecticut, along Route 25. CNI News will try to
get more information on these events.
========================================================
3) IN PURSUIT OF THE MYSTERY CAMERAMAN
Does His Story Indicate a Real Crash Location and Date?
[The May 13 edition of CNI News discussed a current rumor that the mystery
cameraman who shot the "alien autopsy" film had at last been interviewed.
This rumor died as quickly as it began. No such interview has yet occurred.
However, further rumors continue to emerge, along with tantalizing clues to a
possible "real" crash site and date. CNI News thanks Steve Kaeser for
permission to reprint this article.]
by Steven Kaeser
While the debate over the alleged "Alien Autopsy" footage has subsided
somewhat, the issue is far from resolved. That is not to say many will have
their positions changed as a result of future announcements, but it can at
least be assumed that Ray Santilli and his partners are hoping to keep
interest at a high level so future releases of alleged "footage" [remain]
profitable.
This past weekend [May 11-12] at the Mid-Atlantic MUFON Symposium, Bob Shell
presented some of his research into the "film" thus far, and provided some
interesting information for those who are still following the story as it
unfolds. Some of [the following] is a direct transcription of Bob's
presentation, noted as such. The rest has been derived from conversations at
the Symposium and other portions of his presentation that are not
specifically [quoted].
During the past six months an effort has been underway on many fronts to
obtain additional information from the alleged "Cameraman" as to the location
of the crash and the circumstances surrounding the recovery of the "bodies"
and "debris". Thus far, all information has been obtained through Ray
Santilli.
The goal, of course, is an "on camera" interview with the "Cameraman", which
Bob Kiviat has said is a requirement of an update to last August's "Alien
Autopsy, Fact or Fiction" program. This has not yet taken place, in spite of
rumors to the contrary, and is still being actively pursued behind the
scenes. Ray Santilli and his partners are in control of the information flow
regarding this matter, and it would appear that when they are ready to
finalize the details regarding an interview, it will take place. This first
interview will be important, in that it will likely open the floodgate to
other interviews that are also being negotiated.
This is, once again, all about money. It appears that negotiations for
exclusive rights to the first interview are, in part, open to the highest
bidder, and followup interviews will take place as arranged (at this point)
through Santilli.
In lieu of direct contact with the "Cameraman", Bob Shell and a few others
have had an opportunity to ask him questions, through Ray, in a three-way
telephone conversation. During one such conversation, he provided a
description of his trip to the alleged crash site near Socorro, New Mexico.
In addition, the "Cameraman" has provided a hand drawn map, as well as a
printed map, on which he has marked the alleged location.
As Bob noted in his presentation: "The crash site is about 10 miles southwest
of Soccoro. That's about 125 air miles from the Foster Ranch, and so we're
talking about something that happened about 125 miles away and a month
earlier. So, this is not the Roswell event and should not be associated with
it... but WAS associated with it, mostly for commercial reasons.
"I've been out there twice, [German researcher] Michael Hesemann has been out
there several times, and friends of ours who live in Arizona have been out
there several times trying to make sense of the cameraman's instructions. We
only just recently found out that the reason we couldn't find the location is
because the road, Route 60, has been re-routed since 1947, and we weren't
aware of that. A modern map shows how the road loops down to the southwest,
then begins to loop back up again towards Magdalena. That road was a little
bit straighter in that first loop back in the '40s, and the changing of its
location is what's thrown everybody off who's been out there looking for the
crash site.
"While we were out there, we went to the New Mexico Bureau of Mines in
Soccoro, because we were pretty sure we had the right general area for the
crash site, and we found something interesting there. We found a document in
their files, which is a standard report on a mine with the unfortunate name
of 'Niggerhead Mine.' Basically, it tells us is that the manganese was
played out in 1943 and the mine was shut down.
"But for some reason, on June 1st of 1947 the mine was reopened by the
military, kept open for one month -- no mining was done -- and it was shut
down again. Now, I've thought about that a lot, and the best explanation I
can make is that if you wanted a cover story for heavy equipment going down
this funny little dirt road, if you were taking in a lot of big trucks in and
out and you didn't want the locals to be too curious, if asked you could say
you just re-opened that mine.
"You've all heard the Barney Barnett story. Well, I talked very briefly by
telephone to Faith Danley, who is the wife of 'Fleck' Danley, who was Barney
Barnett's boss. She's, to be honest, very tired of talking to UFO people and
wants to be left alone. But she agreed to talk for a few minutes and said,
'Oh, yes. Fleck went out to this crash also.' I asked if she knew when the
crash had occurred, and she didn't know the date, but said it occurred in the
summer of 1947. When asked where the crash had occurred, she said that by
her recollection the crash was between Magdalena and Socorro. The same place
we've been looking at for this crash site, and not out on the 'Plains' at
all.
"One of the landmarks that the Cameraman used when he was talking about the
road to the crash site was a wooden bridge, and after we realized that the
main highway had been re-routed we were able to locate the old route followed
by Route 60 and the old dirt road, and we found the remains of a large wooden
bridge. The cameraman said they went across a wooden bridge in 1947, but
when he went back to the site about 15 years ago the bridge had long since
collapsed and was in ruins. Now we know from talking to the Forest Rangers,
because all this area is part of a National Forest, that this was the only
wooden bridge anywhere for many mile around. So if a wooden bridge was a
landmark, this is THE wooden bridge. This does connect to the same road that
goes down what's called Box Canyon, and again this is that same place where
the mine was re-opened by the military.
"Michael Hesemann is convinced that he has located the crash site in an area
west of the dirt road [note: later it was stated that it is four miles north
of the actual mine site]. On the western side of a large flat area is a
cliff face that rises vertically, with an area at the base of the cliff that
has been artificially chewed out. It doesn't appear to be eroded by water,
or removed in any way we would think of. It appears to have been chiseled
out by people, and the cameraman's statement was that when this thing came
down it was so hot that it melted the rock. One of those on the small
expedition was a miner, who said that it appeared to be a special type of
mining, but the rock face is made of a type of rock that doesn't contain
anything that anyone would want to mine." [end of Shell quote]
So, while there are many who will complain that we have no proof that the
"Cameraman" is a real person, as he remains cloaked behind a veil of secrecy,
it is most interesting that his description has led to a site that the
military can be connected to, at the time mentioned by the "Cameraman".
========================================================
4) THE GREAT SOUTH TEXAS CHUPACABRA HUNT
[In the wake of reports that the dreaded Chupacabras might be on the prowl
south of San Antonio, Texas, our intrepid reporter Rebecca Schatte decided to
join a night expedition to watch for the beast. Here's her story.]
By Rebecca Schatte
On Sunday, May 12, I met with a group of five folks from San Antonio to look
for the chupacabra. The hunt was carefully planned by Jason Andromalius, who
had first notified me by e-mail of a recent report of nine goats being killed
near San Antonio.
Jason had found a site near the Medina River that appeared to be public land.
The river is about 1 to 2 miles south of the attack site. Of course, looking
for the Chupacabra in South Texas after having received only one report of an
attack is like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack.
I agreed to meet Jason and the gang in La Coste (pop 1021), a small town
southwest of San Antonio. I came armed with a notepad, pen, and tape
recorder. Jason was much better prepared, with a night-vision scope, motion
detector, binoculars, walkie-talkies, one
shotgun (NOT ENOUGH), gas masks (in case the chupacabra spit some vile poison
our way!), infrared film, cameras, tape recorders, and flashlights.
What we needed was beer. Then we would have probably seen a chupacabra. We
did hear lots of strange noises, but nothing that came out on the audio tape.
Maybe chupacabras are like vampires who can't be seen in the mirror -- they
can't be recorded on audio tape. That's my working theory, anyway.
Before the group gathered at 7 p.m., I visited the original site of the goat
attack and generally surveyed the area. I spoke to a number of people in the
town of La Coste and asked what they knew of the Chupacabra. I found that all
the people with whom I spoke in the predominately Hispanic town were familiar
with the goatsucker. They talked of the reports they had seen on the Hispanic
television stations from San Antonio. However, no one seemed overly
concerned, just curious as to what the chupacabra really was. Most believed
it was real. Speculation ran from the chupacabra's being some type of
government-induced experiment to a new kind of unknown animal. Not one person
I spoke to believed it to be a myth.
The site that Jason had selected was a beautiful-tree covered area on the
banks of the Medina River. An open field to the north of the river contained
an abandoned deer blind (a truck cab on stilts), and this is where Jason and
his friend, also named Jason, holed up. Kevin and his girlfriend, Delia,
picked a site right on the bank of the river, a little farther upstream.
Jason's girlfriend, Yvonne, and I were designated to stay at the base camp,
which was also on the river bank but on the south side. All three locations
were equipped with walkie-talkies, enabling all of us to communicate what we
were seeing and hearing.
And we all heard LOTS of things! Kevin and Delia heard the most interesting
sounds. They also got quite a bit of action on the motion detector, but could
never see anything, even with the night-vision equipment. "Flapping noises"
were heard in the water and the motion detector indicated motion. The
flapping noises were described as having been made by something large.
Meanwhile, Jason and Jason were hearing odd things too-- lots of wailing and
dogs barking, plus occasional train whistles. Yvonne and I were not without
strange sounds, either. We heard a myriad of strange things, from branches
rustling to sounds of something moving through the brush. Unfortunately we
did not see anything.
Delia and Kevin came back to the base camp because Delia did not like sitting
near the river. I can't say that I blame her. It was very spooky being in the
middle of nowhere in the middle of the night. I felt vulnerable. Kevin left
Delia with Yvonne and me and returned to his original location on the river.
And then...
It was Delia who said: "What's that?" Yvonne and I scrambled for the
flashlight and shined it across the road to see a small, strange-looking
animal ambling along. At first we thought it was a possum, but with the
illumination of the animal we saw that this was no possum! The animal
resembled a cat but was bigger than a housecat. It was brown and its eyes
reflected that eery "green" that only animal eyes can do when illuminated.
The animal had pointed ears resembling a cat in that they stood up on the top
of its head and they seemed larger than a cat's ears. The animal did not move
in a stealthlike manner one associates with a cat. This animal ambled, more
like a possum or an armadillo. Its movement caused Yvonne to remark that the
animal was hurt. And that is the way it appeared.
But the interesting thing was that when we caught the animal in the
flashlight beam it sat up on its rear haunches and looked right at us. It
stared at us for what seemed like an eternity. While we were trying to
contact the rest of the gang on the walkie-talkie, the animal made its way to
the underbrush. We caught it again in the flashlight beam, and again the
animal turned, sat up on its haunches and looked at us before disappearing
into the brush, never to be seen again. Perhaps, it was a baby chupacabra!
We never thought to get the camera.
Around 1 a.m., the boys made their way back to the base camp, and we all
exchanged tales of what we had heard and seen. After packing up the gear, we
departed.
So that's it. It was cool, and I want to go back. I wonder if the Fish and
Wildlife boys have set a "season" for chupacabras?
========================================================
5) "IS THAT THE CHUPACABRA CHOO-CHOO?"
Reflections on a Phenomenon, by Bufo Calvin
[Here's the latest from our occasional Columnist of the Weird, the inimitable
Bufo (yes, that's his real name) Calvin. Do you have a question about
anything Weird? Bufo is the answer man. You can contact him via email at
[email protected]. Bufo also maintains a phone message service called
"Bufo's Weird World." For the latest weirdness by phone, call (510)
432-8102.]
By Bufo Calvin
May 15, 1996
Yup, and the "drain train" has been making stops all over the world! The
"goat-sucker", which started out as a Puerto Rican phenomenon, has been seen
in Costa Rica, Florida, Mexico, New England, San Francisco, Moscow,
Oregon...you may be more likely to see it than to see your dentist. It's
even started to make it into the mainstream press. The SAN FRANCISCO
CHRONICLE ran a small piece on May 11 (page A14) about the sightings in the
Sinaloa state of Northern Mexico. It had one of those wonderfully precise
"mundane explanations": "...thought to be a vampire bat, wolf or large cat."
Syndicated humor columnist Dave Barry (on whom the DAVE'S WORLD tv series is
based) mentioned it in his April 26th column. Playing on a despicable
stereotype, he had a hilarious line: "...first reported in Puerto Rico, where
it is known as chupacabras, which is Spanish for 'attorney'." We don't
approve of lawyer bashing, and please don't sue us.
"Anomaly Comedy"
Speaking of comedians, I've noticed that it is from their ranks that some of
the great supporters of weird stuff come. Jackie Gleason, THE HONEYMOONERS
Ralph Kramden, was known for his huge library on the paranormal. He also
reported having many such experiences, including UFO sightings. He commented
that "These were definitely not objects made on our planet -- they weren't
secret weapons -- but were solid craft." Brett Butler, star of GRACE UNDER
FIRE, reportedly had a close encounter.
Stand-up comedian Dick Gregory was one of the earliest people to suggest that
there was "...a conspiracy afoot to formulate a one-world government and that
one of the ways they are going to do it is with dummy flying saucers." While
that isn't an expression of support for the paranormal, exactly, it does
support the witnesses.
Soupy Sales, famed kiddie show host, reportedly [claims] that he had
encountered many extraterrestrials. He said that he could tell by their
auras... that otherwise they appeared to be "quite normal". Dwight Shultz,
"Crazy Murdoch" on the A-TEAM, has co-hosted Don Eckers UFOS TONIGHT cable
radio show.
Dan Aykroyd, one of the original stars of SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, has been one
of the most open proponents. He gave David Letterman a copy of ABOVE TOP
SECRET (a UFO book by Timothy Good) when he appeared on the show. He has
said that the Blues Brothers outfits were inspired by the stories of the
"Men-in-Black" who harass UFO sighters. He has recently begun work on a
non-fiction series on the paranormal. When told about the Chupacabras (there
it is again!), he said he could do a piece on it and call it "Goat-busters".
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