Publisher Bob Guccione Reportedly Paid Lots for Photos.
The September issue of Penthouse magazine, now on newsstands, comes wrapped in plastic to discourage the
prying eyes of underage girl watchers. But this time, the plastic sleeve, like the printed cover inside, trumpets
something other than cleavage. "THE ALIEN" is printed in bold red letters across the top of the wrapper,
visible from fifty paces.
by Michael Lindemann. Reprinted by kind permission of CNI News.
According to a recent story on the UPI newswire, Penthouse's flamboyant publisher Bob Guccione may have paid as much as $200,000 for photos of an alleged alien, although Guccione said on television last week that he paid nothing for them. The magazine shows three views of the alleged alien, accompanied by enthusiastic text. But we've seen those photos, and that alien, before. In fact, even if Mr. Guccione got them for free, he got taken.
These are the same photos that first showed up in a Hong Kong tabloid last year. At the time, they offered a bit
of diversion from the tiresome debate over the "Santilli alien autopsy." But in no time at all, filmmaker Paul
Davids, executive producer and co-author of the fine made-for-TV film "Roswell," stated over the internet that
the alien in the photos was one of the dummies made for his film -- a dummy which now resides, in precisely the
pose shown in the photos, in the International UFO Museum in downtown Roswell (see picture of Walter Haut & dummie. Ed note), New Mexico. (Dummies made by New York FX-artist Steven Johnson. Johnsons right-hand man Joe Fordham has stated that the Penthouse pictures are by Johnson. Editor's note)
Reached by phone just as this story was going to press, Davids reiterated his insistence that "the alien" is his dummy. "There's not even one chance in a billion-trillion," he said, "that it's anything other than the prop we loaned to the Roswell museum, which is now on public display. It is the same in shape, and every detail of every wound, down to every freckle, matches."
Davids expressed great frustration that he is now required to debunk the photos, when he is actually a strong advocate for the authenticity of the Roswell case.
But these particular photos have fired many imaginations. A good friend of this writer called on the phone a few
months ago to say, somewhat breathlessly, that he had taken possession of a genuine photo of an alien. He was
absolutely sure this was the real article. In due course, he brought it by for my examination. It had been
acquired, he said, from a Mexican source, and was unimpeachable. Except, it was the very same photo. Alas.
Still, Bob Guccione is not just any mark. Alongside his proclivity for nude women -- from which he has garnered
lots of dollars -- he harbors an outspoken and obviously genuine interest in the prospect of human-alien contact.
He seems convinced of a government sponsored UFO coverup. He put considerable resources into "Project
Open Book," the short-lived UFO research effort undertaken by his "other" magazine, OMNI. And there can
be no doubt that, in publishing "the alien" in the latest Penthouse, he thought he was on to the story of the
decade, if not the millennium.
But he was very wrong.
The text accompanying the Penthouse alien photos shows just how strongly Guccione believes his own story. Excerpts follow (written by Keith Ferrell).
Final Note:"Bob Guccione doesn't give up. And he doesn't get scared. 'The three extraordinary images published here may well be the most important pictures in the history of photography,' says Guccione, the editor and publisher of Penthouse."
"Take a look at the photos accompanying this article and you'll get a glimpse of what he means. Penthouse is publishing these photos in order to focus the light of publicity on the continuing government suppression of its own research into evidence of extraterrestrial visitors to our planet."
"'A photograph of Jesus Christ might be a comparable story to the first real photo of an extraterrestrial,' Guccione says. 'Otherwise, there's nothing that compares to this.'"
"It's extraordinary enough that the picture is being published at all. Guccione is confident that had the government -- and particularly military intelligence -- known of the existence of this picture before publication it would never have seen print... Indeed, he suspects that had certain agencies been aware of these images, more dire measures than mere suppression might have been employed."
"The photograph came into Bob's possession precisely because he doesn't get scared, and won't back off when his convictions are aroused. And because he knows that our 'best interests' in this matter can only be served by full disclosure of any evidence that exists. No matter what they say."
"'Who are they to keep from us incontrovertible evidence that we are not alone in the universe?' Guccione asks. 'The images here have been suppressed for decades and come from a film taken under extremely tight military security. We're fortunate that a few frames were smuggled out of the installation where the footage was originally made. And fortunate that the owner has decided to go public with the image.'"
"The picture belonged to the daughter of a German scientist who escaped to America at the outset of World War II. In this country the scientist worked with Einstein and Oppenheimer and was also involved in top-secret government research endeavors, including the infamous Philadelphia Experiment and the investigation of the crash of a mysterious spacecraft in Roswell, New Mexico, in the late 1940s."
"Years after the Roswell crash, the woman says, her father presented her with several frames of motion-picture film, instructing her to keep them hidden, making it clear to her that simply possessing the film could endanger her life. Yet the film, he assured her, was genuine, and would prove beyond any possibility of denial the government's cover-up of alien visitors on Earth. She would know when the time was right to reveal the pictures to the world."
"The images remained in the woman's possession for nearly half a century. Devoted to her father -- and her father's memory -- she obeyed his wishes and said nothing. Gradually, as public interest in the alien-visitation phenomenon grew, and as hoaxes such as the recent 'film' of an alien autopsy attracted attention and controversy, she began to consider going public with her secret film."
"The woman's name will not be made public. Her well-being is in part responsible for that decision. 'How we got in touch with each other is our business,' Guccione says. 'I respect her privacy and sympathize with her concerns for her own safety And I have absolutely no doubt that these pictures are genuine.' He also has little doubt that, now that the pictures are in print, the government will insist that this is simply another hoax."
Readers of the Flash may compare the Penthouse "alien" with photos of Paul Davids' movie dummy at the Roswell museum, by visiting web address http://web2.airmail.net/yogi/museum.html. Allowing for differences in camera angle and lighting, it is not difficult to see that they are one and the same. Sorry, Bob.