"Jack Barnett"("Jack BARNETT", JB). |
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Please, before asking any question or sending any comment or criticism, read this.
As far as I know of [written before 2006], there is no evidence or any reliable corroboration that Jack Barnett exists. The alleged "Jack Barnett" provides some biographical information in his own alleged words, however.
[Added April 2006:] Please read the confessions by Ray Santilli: "Jack Barnett" was only a man in the street hired to performe the fake interview.
None exist.
"Jack Barnett" never appeared publicly.
On December 19, 1996, Japanese Fuji TV broadcast a 6 minute video taped interview which presented the alleged "Jack Barnett", an old man, answering questions that Robert Kiviat, producer of "Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction" gave Ray Santilli to have him the question answered by the cameraman. Allegedly, the videotape was done by the cameraman's own son. Here is a transcript of the interview:
"Jack Barnett": Ready? Okay. I have here some notes, and on these notes I have answers to precise questions. My son is here to help me with this interview. You will excuse me, this is the first time I have been in front of a camera and I am a little nervous. And I will use my glasses; and I have prepared a statement before we go on with the interview. I am the person who shot the film. I will not tell you my name but I want you to know that I am not happy that I have betrayed my country. Our United States of America is the greatest country in the world and I am proud to be an American. I do not want that to change.
Question: What made you to become an army photographer?
"Jack Barnett": It wasn't my decision to become a cameraman in the military. They found out that cameras were something I understand and do best. And that's why I was given the job.
Question: What instructions did you receive from the army concerning a UFO in 1947?
"Jack Barnett": No comment.
Question: Why did you fly to New Mexico and did you receive any special instructions from the army?
"Jack Barnett": Yes, I remember I got a call from McDonald telling me to immediately report to General McMullen. When I got to McMullen I was told that a plane had come down just outside Soccoro, New Mexico. A flight was being laid on to go down there and I was to be on it. I was told to film the crash site and stay with the team, nothing else.
Question: Please tell us anything that you saw when you arrived at the crash site in New Mexico. Where and how did you get there?
"Jack Barnett": Now let's see...I flew out of Andrews with the team, mainly medical I think. We stopped at Wright Field to pick up other officers and men, changing planes and flew down to Roswell Air Base. Ah... we had a lot of equipment with us. After the flight we traveled by road and dirt track to the site.
Question: What instructions did you receive when you arrived at the site and what was your impression?
"Jack Barnett": There were injured creatures lying around, obviously in pain, but the men at the site were too scared to get close. Oh there was a great deal of confusion until we arrived. My authority allowed me to operate as an independent as long as I didn't interfere with the clean up. When I arrived, I set up my tent and equipment and once I had light, I started shooting. How did I feel about it? I was concerned about potential contamination, but I had no choice.
Question: Who else did you see at the location? Photographer? Scientist? Soldier?
"Jack Barnett": Even if I could remember, I wouldn't give you names! Yes, there were scientists, military brass, and medical experts, even Truman's team got down there, it was the full works.
Question: How was the situation of the site?
"Jack Barnett": We were told nothing and ordered not to discuss what we had seen. We all knew it was not a spy plane or any other type of plane we had seen before. No one knew how it crashed or where it came from.
Question: What did you take at the site?
"Jack Barnett": I filmed the crash site, also the poor freaks, and we were told to keep back. I filmed the vehicle itself and the area around it. I felt nervous of something I could not understand or explain.
Question: How did you communicate with the spacemen?
"Jack Barnett": The freaks kept crying out and the men were scared but they were trained and they were ordered to go in and treat it like a war situation. Their first job was to recover the objects the freaks were holding just in case they were weapons of some kind. I filmed the assault on the freaks to get these objects. It turned out they were not weapons, but control units of some kind. The freaks didn't want to let them go but they didn't stand a chance, we got 'em. Once the units were secured the freaks were removed.
Question: How did you keep the film after shooting and who developed it?
"Jack Barnett": I kept all the film with me, went back to the base and I processed it.
Question: What happened to the remains of the UFO after delivery?
"Jack Barnett": Where did it go? Give me the question again. Now the freaks were taken by the medical team to a lab that had been set up at Fort Worth; the debris and craft were taken to Wright Field.
Question: When was the spaceman cut up after the crash?
"Jack Barnett": The first autopsy took place about three weeks later. I filmed some at a small lab in Fort Worth.
Question: Under what instructions did you take pictures of the dissection?
"Jack Barnett": I was never given orders on how to shoot film, my brief was the same, film everything, but stay out of the way which is what I did.
Question: Who else was there for the dissection of spacemen?
"Jack Barnett": What do you think I am? I can't give names.
Question: What were difficult points in shooting of dissection?
"Jack Barnett": The protective suits made my job very difficult. Also the air feeds into the feet kept tripping me The surgeons were always getting in the way, but I expected that.
Question: How did you develop the film?
"Jack Barnett": [not audible] ...away I developed the film myself back at the base.
Question: What are problems after developing the film?
"Jack Barnett": Most of the processing took place around August, by the time the military as we knew it, ceased to be. The Air Force and the Army were about to split and my unit was about to be disbanded for a time anyway [laughs loudly]. In fact, you could say I was in a strange position for a time of not belonging to either one service. Then eventually they found a home for us.
Question: Why could you take back the film proving the existence of spacemen home with you?
"Jack Barnett": I took all the film because I had no one to report to. My orders were not to discuss the situation with anyone unless they brought up the subject first. The first batch had been delivered, then the department folded and I had no one to deliver to. I tried to contact McMullen, but I couldn't get through. In the end I couldn't leave it laying around so I took it home which is where it stayed.
Question: Why did you keep the film after 50 years?
"Jack Barnett": I didn't present film to an eager buyer, it didn't happen that way. One thing lead to another and I felt that there was no reason to keep hold of it any longer. Also I needed money at the time.
Question: How did you meet Ray Santilli?
"Jack Barnett": He was in Cleveland looking for music film. I had some footage I shot in '55 when I was freelancing and he was interested in buying it for a documentary. In fact I wouldn't have met him if it hadn't been for my son who discovered that a British company was in town looking for old film.
Question: Is there anyone that has seen the film in the past 50 years?
"Jack Barnett": No!
Question: How did you keep the film and protect it for 50 years?
"Jack Barnett": Now the film was kept safely hidden for about 40 years. I never got to handing it back and just didn't want it in the house. Keeping it secret was never a problem, as it was among other film cans; most of the time I didn't give it a thought.
Question: Was there any reaction from the US government to release such secret film of dissection, which influences the history of human being?
"Jack Barnett": I don't know. Thank heavens I haven't heard from them.
Question: [not understood] Some people think that you are used for global psychological test to see how much the world can be controlled through the existence of spacemen. What do you think?
"Jack Barnett": A test lasting 50 years! People can think what they like, all you have to do is look at the film. I can't tell you what these freaks are or where they came from, but it happened. Frankly, I wish I had never sold the film. He kept after me until I sold him the film. I sold him the film because I needed money. I’m not proud of it. Santilli took about 25 reels. That's it. I’m going now. No more questions. Turn it off. No more questions.
There is another alleged interview transcript, with no evidence that the interview is a real interview of an existing Jack Barnett.
Hans v. Kampen said he received a copy of a written statement from the cameraman "JB" from the leading Dutch newspaper "De Telegraaf" of Amsterdam in August 1995. He said that the original document is in Amsterdam and that it reads exactly as follows:
EXACT TRANSCRIPTION OF TAPE RECORDED STATEMENT
I joined the forces in March of 1942 and left in 1952. The ten years I spent serving my country were some of the best years of my life.
My father was in the movie business, which meant he had good knowledge about the workings of cameras and photography. For this reason I believe I passed a medical that would not normally allow me in, due to Polio as a child.
After my enrolment and training, I was able to use my camera skills and became one of the few dedicated cameramen in the forces. I was sent to many places, and as it was war time, I fast learned the ability of filming under difficult circumstances.
I will not give more detail on my background; only to say that in the fall of 1944 I was assigned to Intelligence, reporting to the Assistant Chief of Air Staff. I was moved around depending on the assignment. During my time I filmed a great deal, including the tests at White Sands (Manhattan project/Trinity).
I remember very clearly receiving the call to go to White Sands. I had not long returned from St. Louis where I had filmed the new ramjet "Little Henry" [See note by Patrick Gross underneath]. It was June 1st when McDonnell [Original note: George C. McDonnell was the first Air Force Chief of Staff for Intelligence. He was most likely Assistant Air Chief of Staff for Intelligence in June of 1947] [Webmaster's not: or McDonnell simply refers to James Smith McDonnell, the builder of "Little Henry"] asked me to report to General McMullen [Original note: Major General Clements M. McMullen, Deputy Commander of the Strategic Air Command in Washington] for a special assignment. I had had no experience working with General McMullen, but after talking with him for a few minutes I knew that I would never wish to be his enemy. MuMullen was straight to the point, no messing. I was ordered to a crash site just south-west of Socorro [Original note: this could be the Plains of San Agustin]. It was urgent and my brief was to film everything in sight, not to leave the debris until it had been removed and I was to have access to all areas of the site. If the commander in charge [at the site] had a problem with that, I was told to get them to call McMullen. A few minutes after my orders from McMullen, I received the same instructions from "Tooey" [Webmaster note: nickname of General Spaatz, Chief of Staff of the US Army Air Forces], saying it was the crash of a Russian spy plane. Two generals in one day, this job was important.
I flew out from Andrews with sixteen other officers and personnel, mostly medical. We arrived at Wright Patterson and collected more men and equipment. From there we flew to Roswell on a C54.
When we got to Roswell we were transported by road to the site. When we arrived the site had already been cordoned off. From the start it was plain to see this was no Russian spy plane. It was a large disc "flying saucer" on its back, with heat still radiating from the ground around it.
The commander on site handed over to the SAC medical team who were still waiting for Kenney to arrive. However, nothing had been done as everyone was just waiting for orders.
It was decided to wait until the heat subsided before moving in as fire was a significant risk. This was made all the worse by the screams of the Freak creatures that were lying by the vehicle. What in God's name they were no one could tell, but one thing's for sure, they were Circus Freaks, creatures with no business here. Each had hold of a box which they kept hold of in both arms close to their chests. They just lay there crying, holding the boxes.
Once my tent had been set up, I started filming immediately; first the vehicle, then the site and debris. At around 06:00, it was deemed safe to move in. Again, the Freaks were still crying and when approached they screamed even louder. They were protective of their boxes, but we managed to get one loose with a firm strike at the head of a Freak with the butt of a rifle.
The three Freaks were dragged away, and secured with rope and tape. The other one was already dead. The medical team were reluctant at first to go near these Freaks, but as some were injured, they had no choice. Once the creatures were collected, the priority was to collect all debris that could be removed easily, as there was still a risk of fire. This debris seemed to come from exterior struts which were supporting a very small disc on the underside of the craft which must have snapped off when the disc flipped over. The debris was taken to tent stations for logging, then loaded onto trucks. After three days, a full team from Washington came down and the decision was taken to move the craft. Inside it the atmosphere was very heavy. It was impossible to stay in longer than a few seconds without feeling very sick. Therefore it was decided to analyze it back at base, so it was loaded onto a flattop and taken to Wright Patterson where I joined it.
I stayed at Wright Paterson [sic, Patterson] [The air base was named Wright field at the time, not Wright Patterson] for a further three weeks working on the debris. I was then told to report to Fort Worth for the filming of an autopsy. Normally I would not have a problem with this, but it was discovered that the Freaks may be a medical threat. Therefore I was required to wear the same protective suits as the doctors. It was impossible to handle the camera properly, loading and focusing was very difficult. In fact, against orders, I removed my suit during the filming. The first two autopsies took place in July 1947.
After filming I had several hundred reels. I separated problem reels which required special attention in processing. These I would do later. The first batch was sent through to Washington, and I processed the remainder a few days later. Once the remaining reels had been processed, I contacted Washington to arrange collection of the final batch. Incredibly, they never came to collect or arrange transportation for them. I called many times and then just gave up. The footage has remained with me ever since.
In May of 1949, I was asked to film the third autopsy.
McDonnell XH-20 "Little Henry" proved that helicopters could fly using ramjets. Some researchers have argued that "Little Henry" was a helicopter not a ramjet, but it was actually a ramjet helicopter pretty much of the same characteristic as "Djinn" in France. Its first tethered flight was in Saint Louis on May 5, 1947 and its first free flight was also in Saint Louis and dated August 29, 1947 or or August 20, 1947. Two prototypes were built, only one flew, it was abandoned because of excessive fuel consumption and excessive noise.
Do not view the above as evidence of the reality of a Jack Barnett or his story: all these aeronautics facts were well known.
Of course, MacDonnell was asked if any Jack Barnett had filmed "Little Henry." They answered that McDonnell Aircraft Company's ramjet helicopter "Little Henry" would likely have been filmed by McDonnell's own cameramen Chester Turk and Bill Schmitt. Actually it would have been better if one asked whether a demo flight of Little Henry occurred for the military, and if the military came along with a cameraman and if he filmed the demo flight.
The producer of the "autopsy footage", Ray Santilli, said he was looking for some unreleased footage of early Elvis Presley performances when he stumbled upon Jack Barnett, who had such early Presley films and also told him he has this "autopsy footage."
When Jacques Pradel of the TF1 French TV channel showed the footage, they also had investigated the story a little bit. They found in an expert's book on Presely that a Jack Barnett indeed made some Presley filming, which rights belonged to a named Bill Randle. Bill Randle confirmed to French TV journalist Nicolas Maillard, a colleague of Jacques Pradel, that he had sold the rights to Ray Santilli. The only problem, and it is quite a big problem, is that Jack Barnett died in 1967.
But ufologists Michael Heseman and Philip Mantle, and John Purdie of the british TV, and a Japanese TV channel all state that "Jack Barnett" exists, he is 86 and lives in Florida. Ray Santilli also said that Gary Shoefield of Polygram spoke with him.
Thus, the theory surfaced that the real cameraman is not named Jack Barnett, and used his name to protect himself. He said to have known Jack Barnett as a colleague he replaced during a strike at Universal studios.
Two frequent confusions are worthy of note:
The first is that because a certain Volker Spielberg was located by TF1 as an intermediate in the footage's release, some people started to propagate the rumour that the famous Steven Spielberg was involved in its "disclosure", or was the hoaxer.
The second is that because Philip Mantle wtote in an article for Nexus magazine that he had located four eyewitnesses who had seen footage of the same stock in the US military and intelligence, one of them being a captain John McAndrews, then some people started to propagate that James McAndrews of the USAF, one of the author of the latest USAF "case closed" report on the Roswell incident, "knows about the film."
Here is what ufologist Stanton Friedman told in a live interview on the French-German culture channel Arte during a live interview with him transmitted from Texas in 1992:
I have met twice with Mr. Santilli in England. I was part of the Fox network show in US, I looked the footage over and over again. I have found that every time I checked on Mr. Santilli, he wasn't telling the truth.
In the first interview, he said that Harry Truman was clearly visible in the footage. Nobody has seen President Truman. He also said, they had established that Truman was in Dallas at the time of the autopsy.
I said, "did you checked at the Truman library?" He said "yes." Well I checked. According to the Truman library, Truman was not in Texas or in New Mexico in June trough October 1947.
When I confronted Mr. Santilli with this, the second time around, he said, there is a conjonction with this trip to Ottawa. Ottawa is the capital of Canada straight north of washington DC. Dallas is 1100 miles south west the trip to Ottawa in June was by train and was a very public trip. Truman took off the train. He met with the canadian parliament.
So, as you know, a French researcher, Nico Maillard, has located the story about Jack Barnett
When I first met with Santilli, he told me the cameraman's name was Jack Barnett and he had filmed Elvis Presley, that's why Santilli was talking to him and he said "I've got some other material" and so far. Making a long story short, the first film of Elvis was shot by Jack Barnett. He was a cameraman, with Movietone News, and then NBC, he was never in the military which is part of the story, he died in 1967. I have a copy of his death certificate so that doesn't... It's not true.
Mr. Santilli didn't buy the rights of the film from Jack Barnett, he bought it from the owner of the film who was a lawyer right then, then I was told in San Marino [ufology symposium] ... "The name his really Jack Barrett"... Mr. Maillard located the story on Barnett, he was in a Hollywood union for 35 years and he had been in the military, Mr. Barnett had never been in the military even though the story said he was in the military for many years.
Mr. Barnett however was not a cameraman, was out of the military in December 1945, and died in August even thought some of the boosters of the story are saying: "we are going to interview the cameraman." So I have done everything I can, I have talked to many, many, people, I've been to England I can find no reason whatsoever of any kind to relate what is in that footage to Roswell crashed saucers, alien bodies.
I have two eye witnesses, the bodies, their testimonies, they both say small, big head, practically no nose, mouth, ears, big eyes, four fingers [he insists], no thumb, not as you will recognize the body in the film, is heavy not skinny little guy, there are quite clearly visible ear lobes and nose, and mouth, there are six digits even though in one frame you can see that, as if the hand had been... it's sharped off, meaning attached on there is a wedge of space.
Now Mr. Santilli's story has evolved. Now he says that the cameraman says whoever this mysterious cameraman is, if there his such a person still alive, that the crash took place in may 31th in New-Mexico over to Socorro New-Mexico 160 miles from Roswell.
So what we have here, I believe, I call it a froth.
Somebody is trying to pass off footage. I don't know whether the footage is of a earthling, with a genetic defect of some kind or whether it's a Hollywood special, there are people who make bodies, that's their business. Eight of nine of those people when asked said it's a phoney body. They can tell you how to make it. Whichever it is, I don't know yet, it could be a medical school on autopsy, on file of a strange earthling.
Certainly one thing that really bother me, two thing, I worked in security for 14 years and I cannot believe any cameraman would have been allowed to carry away a whole bunch of film. Security didn't work that way.
Second thing, as a physicist I cannot believe that people having the first opportunity to autopsy an alien body wouldn't be doing any measurements. There is no scale, there is no measuring device. They go about it routinely. This was a unique opportunity and what are this suits for, there is no breathing apparatus seen, they keep these from seen, the identity of the supposed doctors, why is the man behind the window? He is reasonably safe from whatever is bad. Why is he wearing a facefull mask? To protect him against what? Otherwise you can't see his face.
So I have very strong ... Now I will have to say one good thing. Because of that footage that has been shown in 32 countries there has been a great deal of public discussions about UFOs that would otherwise not have occurred.
