Roswell Film Update - Steve Kaeser (5/96)

In Pursuit of an "Urban Legend"

Back in the early days, when images of the Santilli Autopsy Film were flying across the web, one of the pioneers to keep up on all the information that was flying was Steve Kaeser. Actually some of the images we display on our site came from Steve. Steve has a habit of checking in on our site form time to time and then offered us his latest analysis of the film, claiming that new developments are going on ... so lets see what Steve has to say ...
ILLINOIS

Date: Thu, 16 May 1996 09:47:04 -0400
From: "Steven W. Kaeser" {skaeser@nmaa.oprg}
Organization: Kaeser Konsulting
To: rshapiro@interaccess.com
Subject: Crash Site Info

In Pursuit of an "Urban Legend"

Update on Roswell Film 5/96
Article by Steve Kaeser

It would appear that 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" is more profitable.
This past weekend 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. To go into all of the details presented would be far too boring for most who have followed this story on the "net" during the past year, but some interesting facets are, indeed, worth repeating. I have taken information disclosed at the Symposium and am offering it here for your review. Some of it is a direct transcription of Bob’s presentation, which I will note as such. The rest has been derived from conversations that were held at the Symposium and other portions of his presentation that are not specifically included.
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, which in the eyes of many will impact on its credibility. But the information has some interesting aspects that deserve examination, and some of those were brought up on Saturday.
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 follow up 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, 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 they asked you what was going on 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". This does not prove anything, of course, but it is one more tidbit that some may find interesting.