TLS, one page, 8.5 x 11, embossed business letterhead, July 24, 1996. Guccione writes to General Ronald Fogleman, Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force. In part: “As you will see from the story and photos beginning on page 150 of the enclosed copy of the September issue of Penthouse magazine, we have reason to believe that an alien creature was recovered from the Roswell crash and subsequently autopsied by U. S. military authorities. The photos we are publishing, we believe, come from a filmed record of that autopsy. This letter is a request to you to comment on these photos and to release all official documents, filmed records, photographs, and other evidence pertaining to the Roswell incident. With due respect, I must say that I do not believe that your predecessors, have been at all forthcoming in this matter and have not leveled with the American public…. I invite you or a senior representative of your service to contact me at your earliest convenience to tell your side of this enigma that will continue to puzzle and intrigue scientists and the American public….” Six decades after the fact, the 1947 Roswell affair remains the most famous and hotly debated UFO incident in modern history. Though officially explained as debris from an experimental research balloon, conspiracy theorists and “eyewitnesses” of varying credibility persist in describing the incident as the crash of an alien craft—from which extraterrestrial bodies were secretly recovered in the most elaborate cover-up ever perpetrated by the U.S. government. New interest in the case was aroused in 1995 with the sensational discovery of film footage supposedly originating at the autopsy of one of the aliens, originally aired in a television special on—where else?—the FOX network. (The producer of the show, Ray Santilli, later admitted that “lost” portions of the footage—i.e., the autopsy itself—were “recreated” in a London flat.) In the following year, Guccione added fuel to the fire by publishing three photos of a Roswell “alien,” purchased for a reported $50,000 to $200,000, in the pages of Penthouse. Far from furthering the pro-alien cause, the photos were soon revealed to depict a model on display at the Roswell Museum, an image that had already been snapped by thousands of tourists. Though Guccione’s aspirations as a would-be Carl Sagan were dashed, it was certainly not the first time, nor would it be the last, that the bodies on display in Penthouse could accurately be described as less than 100% natural. Secretarial notation and mild handling wear, otherwise fine, clean condition. A hilarious, one-of-a-kind relic from one of the wackier episodes in the never-ending Roswell saga! R&R COA.
