ALIEN AUTOPSY FILM – HOW THE SCAM BEGAN
By Philip Mantle
Just when you thought it was safe to go back into ufology the old subject of the Alien Autopsy Film comes up again. There are those who still hold out some hope that this film is authentic and it really is proof that aliens were recovered at a crash site in New Mexico in l947, however, this is not the case. The Alien Autopsy Film is a hoax and is a complete scam.
I have already covered this in my book ‘ALIEN AUTOPSY INQUEST’ but to prove any scam it can be most useful for someone else to check some of your work and discover for themselves exactly where the Alien Autopsy scam began. Sean Jones is a UFO researcher in the UK and I passed him the contact details of Keith Bateman. Bateman made what is known as the ‘tent footage’ section of the alien autopsy film. Not widely seen on TV this is a largely unknown part of the alien autopsy saga. The ‘tent footage’ is about 6 minute’s long, black and white film. It shows a ‘creature’ on a table covered by a sheet with its head, arms and feet showing. To the far side of it are two men in white coats (doctors) and a man in a dark coat walks in front of the camera every now and then. The two doctors appear to be handling some kind of flesh-like material. There is no sound.
Ray Santilli, the front man for the alien autopsy film, originally said that this tent footage film was a sequence filmed at the crash site in a field tent. It was the first section of film shown to anyone, myself included. Several months later Santilli withdrew this statement stating that his mysterious former military cameraman did not recognise the film and could not be sure about it.
In l998, my colleague Tim Matthews and I were contacted by a gentlemen by the name of Keith Goodyer. Goodyer told us that he knew who had made this ‘tent footage’ and he in turn led us to Keith Bateman. Bateman was at first reluctant to speak to us but slowly but surely he told his story of how he faked this sequence, that the whole alien autopsy film was a scam, the full context of which can be found it my book.
I asked Sean if he would independently like to check this part of the story with Bateman to verify my research. This he did earlier this year. The following is reproduced with the kind permission of Sean Jones.
A conversation with Keith Bateman.
Dated 17 Aug 2009
This conversation lasted slightly over an hour. It was free flowing and several things were discussed and revisited during the conversation. It was a conversation, not an interview as we also discussed numerous items non Alien Autopsy related. I took notes and I am using these to refresh my memory. If I omit anything, it is not to be disingenuous but because we talked about quite a lot and as I said, we revisited several items more than once.
I rang Keith Bateman (KB) on his home number supplied to me by Philip Mantle (PM).
I introduced myself, I told Keith that PM had given me his number and told him why I was calling him.
KB volunteered very early on in the conversation that he was the cameraman for the fake "Tent Footage". (Within the first five minutes in fact.)
I spoke about Spyros Melaris (The man who led the team that faked the actual autopsy footage. See my web site: www.philipmantle.com for full details) coming clean and wanting to publish a book about the making of the Alien Autopsy etc. KB said that he had never met the man and had only heard him mentioned in relation to the Alien Autopsy three times, this conversation being the third time.
KB felt that his tent footage was more realistic as he had given a lot of thought in to the camera mans motives etc, i.e.: being got up late at night to come and film this thing. However Ray Santilli (RS) said that it was "a load of rubbish" and refused to pay for it. KB informed me that he still has the original footage on film, (although this is likely to have degraded by now) and he also has the original BETA footage ("in colour"). He would like to know who is claiming copyright of the footage as RS sold it to Kiviat production for a figure that he believes to be $500K. He also believes that Bob Kiviat told RS that KB should get a third of the money for his work.
KB went on to explain that working with RS was "interesting" at times. He was there (back in the days of AK Music) with RS and Andy Price-Watts (AP-W) when RS came up with the original idea for the Alien Autopsy. It was being done for one reason, and one reason only, to make money. KB said they had tried a number of different things to make money; it was like that in the eighties and nineties. KB said whilst RS never paid him for the tent footage he often gave him work to "shut him up", basically paying him to keep quiet about his involvement.
KB said that the Ant & Dec film (Alien Autopsy movie) was total lies from beginning to end. Full of fabrications and that Gary Shoefield (Santilli’s business partner) was never involved the way he was portrayed in the film.
KB said that he edited the tent footage whilst AP-W did the "selling" of the film. Little did they know how RS was "screwing them over". KB said that he had talked to RS about making the AA film himself. Andy Bennett (One of Bateman’s colleagues) was going to be one of the actors in it, the alien, only being disabled he couldn't lie flat on the table for a mould to be made, so in the end, it was his son that was used (Bateman’s).
When I asked how much KB had quoted RS to make the film he told me £25K. I asked him to confirm this as I had been told by Philip Mantle and Spyros Melaris (via email) that KB wanted £45K and that SM wanted just £35K which is why he "got the gig". When I pressed about this figure KB said that he was certain about it as he was quoted £25K to make the body for the autopsy. KB believed that the other company (SM) got the job for £15K. He did say that he felt that SM had done a better job that he thinks he could have done, because of certain effects.
KB said he had also heard that John Humphries (UK sculptor and part of Spyros Melaris’ team) had been credited with making the film, but wasn't sure. When discussing SM & RS having a falling out, KB mentioned about RS falling out with business partners "all the time" and going bankrupt and frequently "winding business's up", and was well known for it.
When I mentioned that perhaps KB should get in touch with SM to perhaps collaborate with case against RS I told KB that SM owned and run Waterfall Studio's and could contact SM through them, then KB told me that he thought RS had shares in Waterfall Studios ( Not correct).
KB mentioned that when PM published his name and address on the internet in relation to the AA he had the Sun newspaper & another daily contacted him for his story, and in the end he did a deal with the Mail on Sunday. He regrets this now as he feels a deal with the Sun would have got him better exposure and perhaps forced RS into coming clean long before now.
KB said that it would be nice to have the recognition for his film, and his input into the whole idea.
I asked him if he had thought about getting his side of the story down on paper and write a book, his reply was he had thought of it, but doesn't really have the time.
Other things.
KB mentioned the name "Barlow" several times during the conversation, I asked Bruce Barlow (BB)? "Yes" he said. BB was involved in the very early days of the AA.
KB and his business partner at the time Andy Price-Watts was invited on the Richard & Judy breakfast show, but Andy didn't want to do it at the time, which KB felt was a bit strange, and he feels that RS was the reason behind this.
I mentioned that KB might be in for some fringe benefits if SM wins his case against RS, "yes, I should imagine Fox would have to pay him huge amounts for using his footage, which in turn would mean that I should get some money for my tent footage".
We ended the conversation with me saying that when I am down his end of the world next I would meet up with him and buy him a pint (or three).
I told KB that I would CC him in the email to online group discussing the SM and the AA and that he was free to make comments and if he wanted to, SM's email would be in the group and that he should perhaps email him?
As I said a number of other things were discussed, and several items revisited a number of times. And errors or omissions are entirely mine. Any comments in speech marks are quotations from Keith Bateman, these might not be verbatim, but are close enough.
Sean Jones
Keith Bateman sent an email to Sean Jones just a few days later to clarify a few points:
Hi Sean
I'm just dropping you an email to clarify some of the points if you could forward it to everyone that you think would be interested I would appreciate that.
Some of the points I would like to make are:-
AK Music used to work quite closely with some of the major DVD companies and one of them was Santilli's before the Point Group. We were an idea company. We were the first company to start doing commercial animations on PC which was featured on the Rolf Harris show. We were the first company to make "Chill Out" videos. We were involved in 999 Police Stop video (editing and music) and loads of other products that were quite popular i.e. healthy living series plus specialist programes which were featured on Euro Trash. Sorry to be rambling a bit but I was very proud of what we achieved in AK Music with small budgets but we did have some talented people that have gone on to do other things working for us.
Back to Santilli - we would produce DVD ideas and try to sell them to the general market for distribution and was always pestering companies like Santilli's with our ideas so when he came back from America and sat in our office with a contract with Elvis' name on it for some back catalogue products he was chasing the subject of Roswell was brought up. I found this quite interesting and whilst talking to one of our animators he told me he had a book about it - I read this book and this is what gave me the idea to create the tent footage. The idea being aliens being brought into a tent - camera man being nervous as to what he was filming and the bad lighting with little time to set up. When I spoke to Sean on the phone I did point out that I had it in colour and was on film (film being video). It was shot on umatic and I still have the Sony M3 camera stored somewhere. It was then put to VHS pushed through the computers with a true vision board and animated lines were super imposed. I was quite happy with the finished result and sent it to Santilli for his reaction. "Load of rubbish" was the jist of his opinion. Although he asked us to super impose a restricted sign at the bottom of the video I do not know where that number came from. In those days I dealt totally with production and my partner Andy Price-Watts dealt with the business side.
The points I would like to make:
The Tent Footage was produced from reading a book I did not realize how big this was until I gave this to Bruce Barlow to input into his video and it was going on a breakfast show the following Thursday. Santilli flew back from his holiday in Orlando just to stop us showing it and paid us to withdraw from the show.
As for Ed's (A U.S. researcher) comments about my involvement I believe that if I had not produced the tent footage none of this would have come about. Even though people saw through it and it was supposed to be "tongue in cheek" it gave Santilli a base to build his story.
Kiviat Productions who produced "The World's Greatest Hoaxes" flew my staff to the U.S. to interview them it was strange that they never asked me to fly to America - maybe as they knew that I was the cameraman and it was my copyright and that Santilli had no rights to sell it I was kept out of the loop. It's amazing that as people fall out with Santilli more and more people come out the woodwork. Kiviat reckoned that Fox insisted that Santilli gave them the tent footage and they paid for it and I am entitled to a share but this has only come out since he has had a fall out with Santilli.
My opinion on UFO's is I believe that we are not in this galaxy on our own and we would be naive to think so. There are a lot more stories to be told about all this i.e. when the footage was released we suspected our phones were being tapped and there was a night I was called out to the alarm system at AK Music where it seemed that in the first instance nothing had been touched but later we realised files had been disturbed and tapes had been moved. Also Santilli had told me that he had been asked quite a few questions from certain authorities.
I hope I have answered some of the questions that seem to be floating about but you must understand how I feel forgetting all the key players I produced a piece of footage (good or bad) that started all of this plus programs all over the world and got Ant and Dec to Hollywood - (don't know if that is a good thing or not!). As for Santilli if he has a piece of real footage who knows!! But he definitely did not show me it. As I am writing this the Alien head is still in my office sat behind me.
Regards
Keith Bateman
I think it is fair to say that Keith Bateman has more than adequately described how the whole alien autopsy film scam started. No original 1947 film, no mysterious cameraman. It was all a money-making scam from the beginning.
Sean has done an excellent job in checking this aspect of the story which is one of the most important of all, how the whole scam began. If it were not for Keith Bateman there would probably never have been an alien autopsy film in the first place. So, if the topic of this film ever arises again, and there are those still holding out hope that it is genuine, please just point them in the direction of this article as it should provide them with all they require.
Philip Mantle.
Alien Autopsy Inquest is available on Amazon.
You can contact the author via email at: philip@mantle8353.fsworld.co.uk
This article has been published in Paranormal Magazine. Please support the publisher and pick up a copy at your news stand or order one off their web site.
DO YOU HAVE ANY INFORMATION ?
If you have any information about any aspect of the alien autopsy film I would like to hear from you. Do you know who the mystery cameraman is, for example? Do you know anything either for or against the film’s authenticity ? If you do, please contact me, in confidence if required, at the following:
Philip Mantle, 49 East Leigh Drive, Tingley, Nr Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England, WF3 1PF.
Email: philip@mantle8353.fsworld.co.uk
web site: www.philipmantle.com