REG PRESLEY AND THE ALIEN AUTOPSY FILMxml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Reg Presley is best known as the lead singer with the 1960’s pop group ‘THE TROGGS’. He sang lead vocals on their international hit ‘Wild Thing’ as was the writer of the huge international hit ‘Love Is All Around’ by Wet, Wet, Wet in the 1990’s. Reg passed away on 4^th February at his home in xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Andover, Hampshire.  The former bricklayer continued performing with The Troggs right up until 2012.

As well as his passion for music Reg Presley had another, quite different interests. One was so-called Crop Circles and another was the infamous ‘ALIEN AUTOPSY FILM’.  This short piece of film caused a sensation when it was released across the world by London businessman Ray Santilli in 1995. The film was shown on Channel Four in the UK and Fox TV in the USA to name but two. Santilli claims he was on a business trip with his partner Gary Shoefield in 1993. They were visiting Cleveland, Ohio looking for old film clips of rock ‘n’ roll starts. Allegedly they bought a very early clip of Elvis from an elderly gentleman. They paid cash and everyone was happy. Santilli states that shortly before flying home he was contacted again by this same (un-named) elderly gentleman who told him that prior to being a freelance cameraman he had actually been a cameraman for the US military. He told Santilli that in 1947 he was flown on a secret mission to Roswell, New Mexico to film the crash and recovery of a UFO. Not only that, he still had film of two of the recovered deal aliens being autopsied. Cutting a long story short, a deal was done and Santilli bought was has become known as the Alien Autopsy Film.

In 1993 I was the press officer for the British UFO Research Association and among my mail one day was a letter from Ray Santilli. After speaking to him and meeting with him over the next 18 months I was shown the film in question in early 1995.  It was in January 1995 that the first ever public mention of this film was made on live TV by none other than Reg Presley. He was on ‘Good Morning with Ann & Nock’ on the ITV network when he suddenly blurted out that he had seen film footage of the alien autopsy and that it was soon to be released.  Presley had been friends with the films owner Ray Santilli for many years. Santilli’s main area of business is music through which he met Reg.

The Alien Autopsy Film was shown on TV for the first time in August 1995. It was hugely popular and of course hugely controversial. The arguments for and against its authenticity raged around the world and I seemed to be in the middle of it all. The height of this interest peaked in 1996 when I travelled to meet up with Reg Presley and a number of other delegates at a huge conference held in Düsseldorf, Germany. The conference was organised by the German newsstand publication ‘Magazine 2000’ edited by historian and UFO researcher Michael Hesemann.

A packed conference venue heard presentations on a variety of topics but the main subject of interest was the alien autopsy film. I presented my findings so far as did Reg Presley. Reg and I were also on a panel at the end of the conference taking part in a Q & A session from members of the public. Reg left the audience in no doubt that the alien autopsy film was the genuine article and that his friend Ray Santilli was telling the truth.

And so the debate continued down the years with no proof of the films authenticity coming from those that owned it and no convincing evidence that it was a fake from those that apposed it. The battle lines had been drawn. I personally was determined to get to the bottom of it no matter how long it took.

This short piece of black & white film has made a lot of money for its owners and made its way right into the heart of popular culture. This culminated in 2006 when British TV stars Ant & Dec appeared in the Warner Bros film ‘Alien Autopsy’. They play Ray Santilli and his business partner Gary Shoefield.  The arguments of the films authenticity still raged. I had kept in touch with Reg Presley every now and again and he had not changed his opinion at all. To him the film was authentic.

In 2008, after a lengthy investigation I finally made contact with a man named Spyros Melaris. He claimed to be the man who led the team that faked the alien autopsy film. Not only that, he could prove it.  Melaris was a film maker and magician and he was hired by Santilli to fake the film. He showed me his research materials, named names, locations and a whole manifesto of other supporting documentary evidence to support his claims. In my mind there was no doubt he was telling the truth.

Santilli of course remained tight-lipped and stuck pretty much to his original story. And Reg Presley never changed his opinion; he did not belie Melaris but instead stuck by his friend Ray Santilli. In 2012 I released all my research in the book ‘ROSWELL ALIEN AUTOPSY’.

Reg Presley was a very nice guy indeed. When you met him you would never have guessed he was a well known pop star. With his West Country accent this former bricklayer had a natural charm and made people feel at ease in an instant.  Reg and his music will live on as will the debate over the alien autopsy film. But for me my quest for the truth is at an end and that truth is that the film is one gig fake. Sorry Reg.

Philip Mantle

ROSWELL ALIEN AUTOPSY is available via Amazon.