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It all began with the excited announcement to the Sheriff of Roswell, New Mexico, that mysterious debris had been found in a field. The rapid emergence of the Air Force from a nearby base and a brisk press officer joking about flying saucers gave the story a boost that the reality of a crashed weather balloon could no longer catch up with. Roswell became the symbol of mankind's first contact with aliens. That was in July 1947. 48 years later, on May 5, 1995, a film was supposed to dispel even the last doubts.

The 16-minute long strip shows two men in protective suits dissecting a humanoid being about four feet tall.

Six fingers, six toes, an elongated skull, a lipless mouth and missing earlobes and sex organs identify the hairless creature as belonging to an extraterrestrial race.

It remains unclear whether the gaping wound on the right leg was caused by the crash of an aircraft or by the efforts of forensic scientists.

Finally, the chest and abdominal cavity are opened and some organs are removed.

Scene from the 2006 film "Alien Autopsy"

Source: picture-alliance / Mary Evans Pi

Not only the World UFO Congress, which met shortly afterwards in Düsseldorf, had its sensation.

Especially since the film's procurer, the British film producer Ray Santilli (born 1958), provided a touching story of the find.

While researching a music documentary, he came across a certain Jack Barnett, who had sold him the top-secret material for $ 150,000.

As a cameraman for the US military, the 82-year-old was said to have filmed the autopsy in 1947 and made backup copies, the authenticity of which would include the blurry images and the Kodak serial numbers of the 22 reels.

However, Barnett is not available for questioning.

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Dozens of television stations promptly acquired parts of the material that magazines have described as perhaps "the most incomprehensible document in human history."

Relevant Roswell writers enjoyed the flood of royalties, and Ufomania had one more holy grail.

Ray Santilli (r.) And his partner Gary Shoefield committed themselves to "their" film in 2006

Source: Getty Images

Less convinced rationalists immediately went to the error analysis. They soon stumbled upon a wall phone that the US telephone company AT&T had only launched in 1956. The level section table without the distinctive holes for the drainage of body fluids and the unprofessional behavior of the dissection team also caused skepticism. "It would have taken me weeks to do an autopsy like this," said one medical professional.

It was not until 2006 that Ray Santilli announced that he had recreated the scene using a doll and that he had also taken on the role of one of the two doctors.

The commitment came just in time for the start of the film "Alien Autopsy - The Space to Make Friends", which the British director Jonny Campbell had created as a satire on the media business.

Which, however, flopped.

Apparently the Roswell Church didn't want their faith to be dragged through cocoa.

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