All language subtitles for Historys.Greatest.Mysteries.S01E07.WEB.h264-BAE

Tonight on History's Greatest Mysteries.

Our conclusion to Roswell, the first
witness.

Previously, a former CIA operative, Ben
Smith, investigates what really crashed

near Roswell, New Mexico in 1947.

Not sure I buy that whole balloon
theory.

Really? Yeah. The focus, a mysterious
journal found among the possessions of

Jesse Marcel.

the first official to arrive at the...
It is not anything from this Earth that

I'm quite sure of.

A top cryptologist believes it may
contain coded messages.

To a cryptographer, this indicates a
certain kind of cipher.

Perhaps details on what Marcel really
saw.

He saw the spaceship.

I'm Lawrence Fishburne, and tonight, the
hunt for the mysterious journal's

author continues.

Was it a fellow officer in Jesse
Marcel's tight -knit group who knew

what he knew? Ben Smith is hot on the
trail. Was one of these men the author

the journal? Was it written by a U .S.
Army officer with inside information on

Roswell? There are some words and letter
combinations I do see in agreement.

This man is at the nexus of all the
secrets.

And what did Jesse Marcel tell his own
family?

years before he ever went public.

He told us that they had told him to
change the story.

Did an extraterrestrial spacecraft

crash near Roswell? The conclusion to
our investigation begins now.

Former CIA investigator Ben Smith has
traveled to Louisiana's Gulf Coast to

visit Houma, the hometown of Jesse
Marcel, where he spent the last 36 years

his life.

At ease among his own people in his
quiet bayou community, Smith believes

may have divulged details about the UFO
crash to family and friends.

Hello, Mr.

and Mrs. Marcel.

They must have liked you. They have
smiles on their face. Oh, in the book,

says, you could sell refrigerators to
Eskimos.

Because I was so persuasive in making
him talk about things, and she could see

that I was getting things.

And that's him and I together. I have my
Nickel State University T -shirt on.

Oh, my gosh.

That's a long time ago.

Linda Corley met Marcel in 1981 when she
taped an interview with him.

for her undergraduate psychology course
at Nichols State University.

Marcel was retired and living with his
wife, Vio.

In 2007, she turned her interview with
Jesse into a book entitled For the Sake

of My Country.

I had a little cassette tape recorder,
and I asked him if it was all right. He

said, sure.

Okay.

Please don't break. Please don't break.

All I can say is, the material that I
picked up, I have never seen before.

And I haven't seen it before.

When I got home, I blessed all the stuff
that was in the kitchen.

My son is going to be as well. He's all,
you know, putting all the stuff on the

floor in the kitchen.

One thing I don't remember is whether I
picked it up or you just picked it up in

my car.

I kept asking all through the interview,
can't you tell me something that's not

in the book?

Linda is referring to the first book to
allege a government cover -up at

Roswell.

Called The Roswell Incident, it was
written by Charles Berlitz and William

in 1980.

It relied heavily on the testimony of
Jesse Marcel.

I asked him that a million times, can't
you tell me something that's not in the

book? And he did.

What Marcel told Linda was that his son,
Jesse Jr., had described the debris

he'd handled inaccurately.

Jesse Jr., who was 11 at the time,
claimed he'd picked up small support

which he called I -beams.

The most unusual part of the debris that
I saw was the I -beam fragments, or

what I recall as being I -beam, because
they were very light.

very strong and they had some writing
along the inside surface of this and

was the thing that really set this apart
from anything i'd ever seen before he

was talking about the symbols that he
saw on the debris and mrs marcel

said i think i have jesse jr's drawing
of that and he said well jesse got all

that wrong anyway i had a composition
book and i'm like Well, here, why don't

you draw me something?

The clip I want you to hear is of what
he says as he's drawing.

He didn't seem to have doubt as to his
memory of that.

That's what he drew. That's the
original.

And I said, now will you sign it?

And he said, yeah. I can't believe I had
the wherewithal to even say that.

And then he signed it.

And he drew the beam, which you can see
is not an I -beam. It's not an I -beam.

Yeah. He told me that they were pink and
purple, and so I wrote that. That's my

handwriting.

So these are some of my beginning
sketches from what he told me.

Yeah, that's something I could never
figure out. Are we talking about wood or

are we talking about metal?

He called it wood. He was specific about
that, but he said it wouldn't burn. How

did he know it didn't burn?

He tried to burn it with a cigarette
lighter. He said it felt like wood, it

looked like wood, but it wouldn't burn,
so it can't be wood.

It has to be something I've never seen
before on this earth, that kind of

Yeah.

I asked him, why didn't you save some of
it? Why didn't you do that? I would

have saved a piece of it.

His choice of words always stuck in my
mind.

I sat on this premium for 32 years.

I don't want any publicity.

All I want is peace.

He said that more than once.

I just want peace. Why don't you have
peace?

He could have sat on it for another 32
years. Why did he talk? It had to have

been bothering him. It had to have been
something he wanted to get off his head.

Yeah, that's true.

I have three tapes that last about four
hours.

And during that time, we had bonded so
close together.

She said, you're welcome here anytime.

Linda says that when she went home, she
couldn't stop looking at the symbols

Jesse had drawn.

I had studied writing and codes and
scripts for other things. And I came

that night, and I looked up some
different ancient writings.

That was exactly what he drew.

Exactly what he drew.

Linda says that what Jesse drew
resembled a kind of shorthand called

notes that were first used in ancient
Rome around 4 BC.

She says the symbols Jesse drew signify
travel and flight.

I went back the next day.

I was invited in, cordially again.

And I showed him some of the... I mean,
look, this one here, these

slashes here.

This is almost exactly what he drew.

And there's a decipher for that.

I went into detail about where this
writing could have come from.

Yeah, I think I saw that. And it got
pretty intense about the writing.

Now, left on good terms, come back any
time you want.

And then he called.

He said, do not use what I gave you.
Everything is a lie.

And the next call was, don't go to the
media with it. He was so irate on the

phone. I can still see myself.

I didn't do anything. I'm not going to
do that. This is for school, you know.

I'm not going to the media with this.

So I never heard from him again.

I was crushed.

What do you think?

caused that change?

Well, I think the second visit, what
happened and transpired there is why he

called and said, don't use it.

Uh -huh. And the only thing that
transpired in that second visit were

the ancient writings. Of the ancient
writings.

Yeah. Huh.

What if he was told that writing means
something to the government or whatever

and he shouldn't tell?

Uh -huh.

You know, you shouldn't have drawn it,
you shouldn't have written it. You know,

what if it was something that was alien
and he's too afraid to

let it out? So, you know, those are what
ifs.

Because I don't know what else to think
about those phone calls. What else can I

think?

Did he ever mention that he was close to
anyone on base, anyone who was

especially important to him?

He talked about Cabot quite a bit.

He thought... Extremely highly of
Colonel Blanchard. Colonel Blanchard had

refused to transfer him three months
later and said he was more

important and needed there, but somebody
else wanted him out.

And he didn't care for General Ramey. He
said General Ramey knew it wasn't a

weatherman. So do you believe Jesse's
story?

Yeah, I believe Jesse believes.

I was always a believer that Jesse
believed.

Nothing stood out as phony. Nothing
stood out as fake.

Did you ever feel like he had a secret
that he wasn't sharing with you?

Well, he says that I'm not telling you
everything.

There's still things I can't tell you.
And I'm like, why? And he says, for the

sake of my country.

That's why I named the book, For the
Sake of My Country.

Ben Smith has just heard a tape
interview with Jesse Marcel.

In which Marcel says it was his duty to
stay quiet about Roswell.

Now Smith has come to New York City to
better understand why Marcel felt

pressure to keep his secret, long after
he left the military.

Hi, Ben. Hi, Leslie.

Come in. Thank you.

Leslie Kane, author of the best -selling
book UFOs, Generals, Pilots, and

Government Officials Go on the Record,
says it's risky for members of the

military to speak openly about UFOs. For
people in the military, there is this

taboo, this stigma around the topic of
UFOs.

They're afraid to talk about it, that it
might somehow affect their positions in

their careers.

There's the respect they have of their
colleagues. Somebody might think there's

something wrong with them.

Those attitudes are still there,
unfortunately.

It sounds like you're convinced there's
a taboo about UFOs. That stigma is a big

factor for sort of the individual out
there who has a sighting. And it's also

big factor as to why there isn't more
research being done by the scientific

community because there's no money to
fund projects that involve something

that's taboo, basically.

But I think it's gotten a lot better. I
think the December 17th New York Times

story, 2017.

really shifted things.

In December 2017, Leslie Kane broke the
story that the Pentagon was running a

secret program to investigate UFOs,
although officially the military claimed

UFO research had stopped in the 1960s.
The Pentagon had a secret program that

started in 2007, but sources have told
me that there were programs before

that.

Kane uncovered not only a top -secret
program, but actual proof that military

pilots reported sightings of UFOs more
than once.

The online version of the story, which
is the one that most people read,

included two official Department of
Defense videos taken of objects,

unidentified objects, and they were
cleared for public release.

Those videos were spectacular, and they
drew a lot of attention to the article.

And as far as I'm aware, this is the
first time actual government videos have

been released of UFOs.

But Kane says that before the videos
were leaked, the pilots

felt intense pressure not to reveal what
they had witnessed.

These are patriots. These are people who
are responsible for the lives of

American citizens, highly trained,
highly credible.

When they see something, they're not
supposed to talk about it. There's

for them to report it.

It just, for me, it borders on just a
kind of irrationality and disrespect.

They struggle with this, and they feel
that their own government doesn't take

them seriously.

That's the problem.

Ben Smith sees similarities between
these events and what Jesse Marcel's

says happened to him in 1947.

Jesse Marcel Sr.

told his grandchildren that Fort Worth,
when it was the second press release

with General Ramey, Jesse was paraded
into the room because he was the first

individual on the scene and he was in
the flying saucer report the day before

and they put out this debris.

And Jesse told his grandchildren that
that was not the debris that he

But he had to pretend it was during the
press conference? He was told to shut

his mouth and to just play along.

That was his claim. Back in the day,
that was so common that these high

military people would know a lot but
feel they couldn't say it, and then

just go to their graves and that's it.

Yeah.

I have a lot of respect for the Marcells
and the Roswell Witnesses. Absolutely.

When you see them talking or you hear
them, They are as convincing as

and I have no doubt that they believe
100 % in what they're saying. They're

lying or anything.

They had an experience. They found
something. They believe that it is what

say it is, and they are extremely
convincing. You absolutely have to take

seriously, and I just wish there was
more information to prove them right.

That proof could lie hidden in the
journal that Jesse Marcel kept among his

prized possessions So far Smith's
investigation has proven that the

authentic Dates from the time of the
Roswell incident and that Marcel is not

author Smith wants to find out who wrote
the journal why and

what it means Without intuition to find
the information

you're useless in journalism or
intelligence, right? You've got to

gut, because that's where you find the
best gold. If it was easy to find,

someone would have found it by now.

Right.

To plot his next steps, Smith meets with
Joe Pappalardo, a veteran aviation

journalist with a deep understanding of
American military history and the

Roswell story.

So Craig, the cryptographer, had some
interesting insights that I did not pick

up on.

And right away, actually, he picked up
on some things that could actually

indicate code.

Craig. Oh, hi. Must be Ben. That's
right. Good to meet you. When Smith took

journal to Craig Bauer, one of the
nation's top codebreakers, Bauer thought

could be written in a homebrew code, a
pattern of letters or words invented by

the writer.

To create something just between
friends, it's not that hard to make it

hard to break.

This. potential homebrew code started
just after Roswell.

In August 1947, we get this weird kind
of writing. So whatever it is, it's

correlated to that strange date. Now, we
still don't have the author, so we

can't quite tell what it is. I don't
know. Zodiac was like that, and they

that code, didn't they? As long as it
says something, you should be able to

break it.

If someone in the 509th wrote the
journal, and we can identify who, it

lead us to other documents.

that allow us to interpret its meaning,
sort of like a broken locket, where you

have one half and I have the other. We
put them together, and it's a treasure

map. So who, in your estimation, would
be someone that we'd be interested in

hearing from at the time? Who would give
him this journal?

Well, as I understand, the Roswell Army
Air Force Base had almost 8 ,000

personnel in 1947. It's a huge base.

But I think it would be helpful to focus
my search on the 509th group and then

his counterintelligence group.

That would be the kind of person that
would have information that would be

safeguarding, and they'd give it to the
point man for the whole Roswell

incident.

As the intelligence officer in Roswell,
Marcel was trusted with the military's

most protected secrets.

And according to his grandson, he stayed
silent about what he saw in 1947 to

protect his family.

When my grandfather started talking
about his experience with the Roswell

he was careful about what he told us. He
didn't want to tell us something that

we could tell somebody that might lead
us in a position where we could have

threatened.

Part of Marcel's job was to share
valuable intelligence with an inner

officers at the 509th Bomber Group.

Smith thinks whoever wrote the journal
might have been sharing something

valuable with Marcel.

I'm hoping that I can get more
handwriting samples of other people in

group to see if this might have been
passed to him by somebody else within

bomber group. I would suggest if they're
in the 509th and if they were officers,

they may have actually served in World
War II.

They hand -wrote a lot of after -action
reports. If they're officers, there may

be handwriting samples that are in old
World War II.

bombing records and archives, where they
flew in from, the bombing assessments.

There's a lot of information.

You might actually get a little drove
there. You might not, but hey, at least

it's a rock to pick over. Yeah, that's
an interesting point. I hadn't

that. Cracking this part of your mystery
is only one good search away. If you

found out who through a handwriting
analysis, then you could find out a

bit more of the motive why.

I'm on my way to meet Jennifer Nasso,
the handwriting expert.

I have with me a number of handwriting
samples belonging to the people closest

to Jesse Marcel during the time of the
Roswell incident.

Ben Smith has been researching Jesse
Marcel's fellow officers in the 509th.

He's gotten writing samples for six
individuals, an inner circle that must

known details about what really crashed
at Roswell.

If it didn't belong to Jesse and he kept
it in his most prized possession, it

had to belong to somebody important to
him.

Now the question is, does anybody's
writing match the journal?

Come on in.

I'm back with more work for you. Tell me
what you have.

I took the journal to a code -breaking
expert.

First of all, he took a look at the
journal, and to his eyes, a few things

immediately popped up.

that suggested there might be some kind
of code.

Now, he ran the numbers and was not able
to find any coherent message that does

not correspond to a letter.

So his next best guess was that maybe
there was some kind of encryption system

that only the author knew of.

So that gets back to the question, well,
who wrote it? Who's the author?

Who is the author?

So I have brought a number of
handwriting samples.

from key individuals at the Roswell Army
Air Force Base.

Let me start with Colonel Blanchard, who
was Jesse Marcel's direct

commanding officer and the head of the
509th Bomber Group.

In 1947, Colonel William Butch Blanchard
was commander of the 509th Bomber Group

based at Roswell. A highly decorated
World War II hero, who had helped plan

Enola Gay's bombing of Hiroshima,
Blanchard was in charge of America's

nuclear attack force.

It was a job in which he would certainly
know about any top -secret operation

involving his air base.

The officer he might have been closest
to was Jesse Marcel.

The Blanchards and the Marcels were
regular bridge partners.

We have Walter Hott, the press corps
officer.

who organized the press releases and
wrote the infamous Flying Saucer press

release. As the base public information
officer, Lieutenant Walter Hout was

ordered by Blanchard to draft that
famous press release that a flying disc

been recovered.

In his later years, Hout came forward to
say he believed Marcel had been telling

the truth and went so far as to say that
he himself had glimpsed bodies of

aliens.

We have Bob Shirky.

Lieutenant Robert Shirky was assistant
group operations officer for the 509th.

If the debris was extraterrestrial,
Shirky would have been in charge of

arranging its transport to the Army's
top -secret research facility, Wright

-Patterson.

After retiring from the military, Shirky
later claimed that Jesse Marcel was

telling the truth.

And over here we have Edwin Easley.

Edwin Easley was the provost marshal at
the 509th bomber crew.

Major Edwin Easley was in charge of base
security.

He would have been responsible for
safeguarding the debris and controlling

personnel had access to it. In this
capacity, it's not unreasonable to

knew what the crates contained.

He would have been responsible for
organizing the cleanup effort to pull in

collect the debris.

We also have...

Patrick Saunders.

Patrick Saunders was the office
administrator for Colonel Blanchard. So

would have been involved in all the
record keeping and issuing the orders.

Patrick Saunders was Colonel Blanchard's
top deputy.

He had flown 37 combat missions in World
War II and had just as many medals as

his boss.

As Colonel Blanchard's number two.

He would have been in the room when
Jesse Marcel returned from the debris

and debriefed the colonel.

If there's anybody at the 509th Bomber
Group who knows everything, it's this

guy, Patrick Saunders. So if this
handwriting matched, it would mean

to the journal, because here is a man
who had access to all kinds of secrets,

who may have wanted to confide something
in Jesse Marcel.

Okay, so we'll compare.

these writings to the journal.

So what I notice right off the bat with
the Blanchard signature, that's all the

writing that we have, correct?

Right. Just having the one signature to
compare to an extended body of text

writing poses a big limitation to the
examination.

From what I see in the Patrick Saunders
writing, while there's a bit more

than just one signature, it's really
just the one sentence.

And so the limitation is still the lack
of quantity of known writing.

It's a bit of a blurry copy, and so it's
hard to tell the pen movement and some

of the fine and subtle features of the
formations of the letters might be lost

in the image quality of that copy.

Looking at the Walter Haught handwriting
and the Bob Shirky writing, this is a

more extended sample of writing.

So there's going to be a lot more
information, a lot more characteristics

I'm going to be able to compare to the
journal.

Well, even if you can provide any, even
if it's the slightest new piece of

information on one or the other, could
help me eliminate one person from the

group closest to Jesse Marcel. And if I
have to, I may have to expand the search

and move out from there to identify who
could have given him this journal.

Smith will leave the journal which was
so precious to Jesse Marcel in Nassau's

hands, hoping she can uncover its
author.

As the search for the journal's author
escalates, Ben Smith returns to Jesse

Marcel's hometown of Houma, Louisiana.

Marcel's granddaughter, Denise, has
convinced the extended Marcel family to

divulge some of the strange things Jesse
told them.

So how is everyone related to Jesse
Marcel?

He was my brother -in -law's uncle.

Okay. But I always called him Uncle
Jesse.

You know, we're all cousins.

Yeah.

My grandmother and Jesse were brother
and sister.

Oh, wow.

Okay. So do you remember speaking to him
a lot?

Yes. We were very close.

We lived next door to him for 10 years.
I went over there a lot.

Smith wants to know what they know from
the lips of Marcel himself.

Their memories seem clear.

Wallace, how old were you when Jesse
shared his story with you? I was a

teenager. You were a teenager?

Mm -hmm.

I want to say that was in 1957.

1957, just 10 years after Roswell.

Yeah.

Okay. I was 12, 13 years old, something
like that. Yeah, okay.

He told me, don't believe everything the
government tells you.

And he started telling me the story
about the crash in Roswell and that they

forced him to lie about it.

This means that two decades before he
told the world an extraterrestrial

spacecraft had crashed, Marcel told the
same story with the same details to the

people he trusted.

What details did he describe? Did he
mention a UFO crash?

He did tell me a UFO crash. He was
telling me about what it looked like.

I put two and two together and figured.

He keeps telling me that we got people
from outer space coming here.

Okay. And what was your reaction then?
What did you think?

Looking up at the sky at night.

Did you believe him?

Of course I believed him. Yeah. Because
I don't think Uncle Jesse would have

lied to anybody.

Right. He wasn't that type of man.

Wallace remembers talking to Jesse.

I don't remember talking to him. Okay.
But Jesse told my dad stories about the

Roswell incident.

And those stories went further than
anything Jesse Marcel ever said in

The thing that interests me the most was
that Jesse drew a picture of an alien.

Jesse drew a picture of an alien?

Yeah. He hand -drew a picture of an
alien.

Huh. Yeah.

My dad lost that picture.

But later on in life, he wrote what the
picture looks like.

That Jesse drew for me.

It looked like the picture that Jesse
drew.

Yeah. That's the first time I'm hearing
any stories about Jesse himself drawing

or referencing an alien.

I don't remember my dad ever saying that
Jesse saw an alien.

Okay. Maybe somebody told him about
this.

Wallace.

Do you think that extraterrestrials
crashed in 1947?

Yeah.

Okay.

Did Jesse ever tell you, June, about his
experience at Roswell?

Yes. He did? He did.

I think probably 74 to 76, somewhere in
there, when he started.

talking to me about it.

Basically, what they're telling you,
too, he found wreckage.

He said it was not of this world.

He described the metal, saying that you
could crumble it up in your hand, but it

would automatically go right back like
it had memory.

Okay. He used the word memory. Mm -hmm.
Okay. And my daughter, who was 10 at the

time, approached him and asked him,
Uncle Jesse, were there any bodies?

And he looked at her, and she says his
eyes kind of glazed over, and he said,

there are things that this world is not
ready for.

That's what he told your daughter. There
are things this world is not ready for.

Right.

In front of family members, Jesse
displayed emotions he kept hidden from

outside world.

He seemed angry at times about the
government.

He told us that...

They had told him to change the story
and that it was not UFO wreckage, it was

the weather balloon.

I think it bothered him a lot, you know,
that he was told to shut up about it.

It was a very notable event in American
history, and he couldn't talk about it,

you know, and it was him that found it,
you know, and then had to lie.

Right. You know, so that tore him up. It
really did.

I think he needed to express himself
about it. So back in 78,

79, he got sort of emboldened about it
and decided he was going to talk.

Yeah. But you heard all of these stories
before there was any big media...

Absolutely.

...sensation about the story.
Absolutely. He was...

Being open with family about it. My
family members were aware of that. It

upset him a lot that people thought that
he was making it up.

And he got some ridicule.

Well, I know it wasn't from our family
that he got that from.

Outsiders would ridicule him and call
him Crazy Jesse.

Oh, really?

Because of when they started hearing
about Roswell.

It must be hard for an intelligence
officer, a decorated veteran, to be

ridiculed by his neighbors and his
community.

I think that would have been hard for
him.

All the reports have been lost. All of
the original files have been lost. So at

this point in time, it really is Jesse's
word against the government's word,

right?

Part of my investigation, and it's just
a part, is to see, can we find any proof

anywhere that this happened?

Yeah.

June, did Jesse ever hint that he might
have

something more, more information, more
details, or maybe something hidden in

house?

What he told me is he came home to
Roswell.

He had some wreckage in his car.

He pulled it out and brought it inside
and showed his family.

But what other things he might have
done, I don't know. He did not ever tell

me that he had anything, you know, of
the wreckage or anything like that.

No.

After meeting with the Marcel family in
Jesse's hometown of Houma, former CIA

investigator Ben Smith and Jesse's
granddaughter Denise get the opportunity

meet someone outside the family who
claims Jesse shared with him

details of the Roswell incident.

Secrets that might lie hidden in the
coded writing of the mysterious journal.

He started off by saying, look, you
know, this thing that happened to me was

real. Calvin Parker.

says he was introduced to Jesse Marcel
by a mutual acquaintance.

Your granddaddy said that they staged
the site away from the actual site to

the general public away.

They took weather balloons out to the
field and tried to distribute little

pieces around so that people could find
them. That I have never heard.

Parker claims that Jesse Marcel told him
about an elaborate military operation

to retrieve alien bodies.

and orchestrate a cover -up to make it
look like a weather balloon had crashed.

The first time he mentioned it, he said
there was actually bodies out.

He said that he saw some?

Exactly. The special unit got the
bodies. He wasn't part of that.

They took them back to the base at
Roswell.

And he described all of this to you?

He described every bit of it to me. It's
so interesting. These are details that

I've not heard before. Yeah, I've not
heard this either. That he didn't tell

Linda. Corley, that he didn't tell his
family members.

That's pretty... Well, he felt like he
could talk because I told him as long as

he was alive, I would never say nothing
about it, and I didn't.

Out of my surprise, he told me, he said,
I've got something that I want to show

you.

He said, I have evidence.

I have proof.

He has proof.

Jesse said he had proof.

I said, oh, I'd love to see it.

So he told me there's a screwdriver in
the kitchen drawer. Go get it.

Go down to a hot water heater and take
the top off and bring it up here to me.

Calvin Parker says that Marcel told him
he'd kept pieces of debris from the

Roswell crash and hidden them inside a
water heater in his home.

I was fixing to unscrew it. I was going
to look at these. So you actually

touched it and put the screwdriver to
it? Oh, I was ready to when somebody

showed up at the door. Oh, my gosh.

I don't know who this was knocking at
the door, but he didn't want to talk

it in front of me.

So I didn't feel real welcome there, and
I got up and left.

I was planning on coming back the next
day, but I had to go to work.

I went offshore for 160 days, and I got
back.

And I couldn't wait to get back over to
see him get that debris.

I went to the house, and I found out he
had passed away.

It broke my heart.

Did your father ever talk to you about
the water heater, about hiding debris?

No, this is literally the first time
I've ever heard this story.

If anything, I always was told that my
grandfather didn't keep anything.

Did he ever say why he hadn't ever
brought it out earlier? That would have

helped. prove his story that he wasn't
making it up. And it's like, hey,

I really do have proof.

So I'm wondering, I'm curious as to why
he decided to show it to you at that

point. Well, he was real loyal to his
country. He was military.

You follow orders when the military
gives you orders.

And I think there was a reluctance there
against his conscience about coming out

against the order that he had had.
Right.

He told me that when he took this
material, it was a real trip for him to

it hid.

But he knew that he'd never get to see
it again when they got to Roswell.

So he, for lack of a better word, had to
steal it. Yeah. He stole the cleanup

effort. The man was on his deathbed.
Right. You could tell physically that he

was having to take something.

Yeah. But mentally, he seemed to be
intact. He seemed to be all there.

He didn't want to die on his conscience.

From a security standpoint, it makes
sense that Jesse Sr.

would anticipate continued scrutiny on
his family. Yes. And that he might want

to introduce somebody without who
believes, who we can identify with, but

without that public presence. Right.
Someone like Calvin.

Right.

There could be some debris left around.

Probably right there in that house
somewhere, but still there.

You think the debris could still be at
the house? I know it could be.

The house is just down the road from
here. Yeah, there's no doubt in my mind.

I've been to the debris field.

I've been out there searching, and it's
hard to find anything.

But here, actually, is a fresh lead in
the investigation that I haven't

encountered yet.

It could mean everything. This is
probably the best.

chance we have of finding anything left
of that crash site.

Thank you for taking the time. This has
been wonderful. Thank you.

It's been my pleasure. Thank you very
much. Thank you. Thank you.

Order of business number one is get to
that home and see what we can find.

The trickiest part about the debris
field is that Even if we find a piece of

metal, we have no idea how it got there.
So many people have been there over

time, before and after. It could have
arrived there in any number of ways.

But if we find something hidden on the
inside of a water heater, we know your

grandfather put it there. Right.

If they could find a piece of debris
taken from the crash site, it would be

astounding development in the saga of
Roswell.

Smith and Denise Marcel will try to get
inside Jesse Marcel's old house, which

is only a short drive away.

We're coming into this cold.

The person doesn't know us. We don't
know them. Right.

We just have to be prepared for the
gamut. I gotcha.

Okay. Tea and cookies versus shotgun
kind of thing. Okay.

I have no idea.

Let's not say that we're UFO
researchers.

Oh, yeah, no. We're researching local
family history. Okay. You used to live

the house. Okay. The Marcel family in
particular.

And we can get into the UFO stuff later
once we feel comfortable that's not

going to put them off. That sounds like
a really good idea.

This is the part that makes me nervous
but also gets me excited.

Yes, I know what you mean.

Matt, nice to meet you. Hi, I'm Denise.

Oh,

Denise used to live here. Well, her
grandfather used to live here. My

grandfather used to live here.

Would you mind if she walked me through
a little bit of the property to show me

where things were?

The owner is reluctant to let them
enter.

And so for now, it's impossible to
verify Parker's claim.

in southern New Mexico on my way to the
home of a guy named Chuck Wade.

Now, Chuck Wade claims to have a piece
of debris recovered from a potential UFO

crash site.

Ben Smith couldn't get access to Jesse
Marcel's former house to verify whether

it contained Roswell crash debris.

Now Smith is following up another leak
and meeting with a man named Chuck Wade,

who is convinced he has UFO debris from
a spacecraft in a crash.

in 1947.

Hey, how you doing? Good, how are you,
Chuck? Yeah.

Did your dad have a relationship with
Mac before that July?

Oh, yeah.

If you're the guy that owns the bar,
everybody knows you. Yeah.

Yeah, Dad owned that bar for many, many
years. Uh -huh.

And I just love to be there and listen
to stories.

I was seven years old the year that the
Roswell incident happened there next to

Corona.

Chuck Wade's father, Jesse Wade, owned
the bar in Corona where rancher Mack

Brazel first came to show his neighbors
the strange debris he'd found while

herding sheep.

Although it is known as the Roswell
incident, the small farming community of

Corona was the closest to where Mack
found the debris.

Matt Brazel found something that he
didn't know and recognize at all on the

foster ranch.

So he came to Corona and asked my father
to go out and see what in the world it

was, because he, Matt, just flat didn't
know.

But Dad was busy, and he was just
himself in the bar, so Dad chose not to

the bar.

Dad regretted that, I'm going to say,
immensely.

He always say, I wished I'd went with
Max if he was out there. Right.

Chuck Wade also wanted to see what was
out there.

After running his own construction
company, Wade has devoted most of the

years to researching UFOs.

So tell me a little bit about some of
the sites and debris that you recovered.

I think it could inform.

My investigation of Roswell... Have you
all studied the crash on the plane to

San Augustine?

No. Wade has come to a startling
conclusion.

Roswell was only one of a series of UFO
crashes that took place in southern New

Mexico during that time.

According to Wade, there were seven UFO
crashes in total. Five of them occurred

during the first week of July 1947.

The first one there was...

August 1945.

This is not here the night of the 1st or
the 2nd of July 1947.

This D3, 4, 5, and 6 was about 11 o
'clock on July the 4th of

1947. And this one up here was in March
1948.

Chuck Wade has a theory about what
caused the spaceships to crash.

What happened, folks, is...

Whenever they put in Los Alamos National
Laboratory, they installed three major

high -powered radars to guard the skies
over Los Alamos.

Wade, who supervised construction of
dozens of air traffic control towers

the U .S., believes powerful radar
signals emitted from the Los Alamos

site caused short circuits in the
spaceships.

It electrified that craft, and it came
down in flames.

Of what he claims are seven UFO crashes,
Wade became obsessed with one in

particular, which he believes crashed on
the plains of St. Augustine 48 hours

before the Roswell crash.

New Mexico is basically square.

Corona is basically really close to the
center of the state.

What we call the Roswell incident
happened about 30 miles southeast of

The plains of St. Augustine is over
here.

About 200 miles.

Chuck started going to UFO conferences.

One of the speakers had discovered some
pieces of debris, and he wanted to go

look for more debris.

Chuck said, well, he would help him with
that, and he'd get some guys to come

and help dig.

So they did.

That was in 2004.

And they found some stuff.

I'd love to see it if I can. Well, I
think it's right around the corner here.

The waves have several fragments.

Can you tell me what I'm looking at
here?

These here are the foils.

And then these here have got...

Whenever the head is squished, but all
these are holes.

Actually, can I remove the glass for a
closer look? Sure, be glad to.

Did you take this to the government at
all?

I don't have any reason to do that.

Well, just curious, you know.

As long as you find a UFO.

I don't know what the government would
say, to be honest.

I believe they said they didn't exist.

That's true, the official position is.

They don't exist, but things are
starting to change. There's a good

but no, how to avoid the government as
best I possibly could.

There is a huge, monstrous, gigantic
cover -up on the Roswell incident.

No one in Corona was allowed.

They were ordered not to talk about that
crash.

Yeah, there's a lot of mistrust in the
community among...

UFO researchers or the federal
government. I think a lot of it stems

reaction or overreaction in 1947.

They found something on the Foster
Ranch.

They didn't know what it was or where it
came from.

I think Jesse Marcel is telling the
truth 100%. I see no reason for him to

other than tell the truth.

The Roswell incident was from outer
space, and there's not a chance there's

damn bulletin that we made.

Now, this one's pretty fascinating.

Can I take a piece with me to get it
analyzed myself?

What do you think?

It's okay with me.

Do you mind if I take this one here?

Oh, sure, sure.

We'd be glad to.

Any of them that you want, we'll be glad
to take a piece off.

I want to know where it came from. Why
is it here? Why don't they tell us about

it?

That is pretty hard to cut, actually.

Smith plans to get this piece of metal
tested to see what elements it's

of and if there is anything about it
that can suggest where it came from.

I'm just outside Denver, Colorado, on my
way to meet David Soucy, our crash site

expert.

David Soucy is a former accident
inspector.

for the Federal Aviation Administration.

Susie has investigated hundreds of crash
sites.

So when Ben Smith took him to the debris
field, where Jesse Marcel first saw

what he believed to be pieces of wrecked
spacecraft, Susie started by measuring

wind currents.

Susie's gut reacts.

Whatever crashed here wasn't
lightweight.

This contradicts the U .S. military
story that what crashed at Roswell was a

weather balloon.

or part of the top secret lighter than
air project Mogul. I'm not sure I buy

that whole balloon drag theory.

Really?

David collected all kinds of data from
the debris field. Wind, geographic

features, weather.

I'm hoping that he can eliminate one
aircraft or another.

Smith wants David Susi to compare his
initial findings with the deep earth

analysis. done by Canadian geophysicists
Colin Miazga and Eric Johnson when they

visited the debris field late last year.

Susie has been communicating with them
online.

I understand you did ground -penetrating
radar as well?

Yeah. Okay. The geophysicists used
ground -penetrating radar and gamma -ray

technology to identify strange anomalies
in the Earth.

Look at that.

Wow, that is...

Interesting. A kind of scarring that
couldn't have come from a deflated

crash. This is the radar.

It doesn't make sense. I can't
understand what that would be.

Hey, Ben. Hey, David. How are you doing?
Good, how are you? Yeah, well, come on

in. Oh, man, I have been dying to see
what you've done with that data.

Well, there's a lot to look at, probably
more than you want to see.

The first thing I want to start with,
this is an overview of the entire site,

the entire area.

That is the reported trajectory.

That's where they found the debris.

Yeah. And then from there, it spread,
they said, as much as a mile in this

direction off of that.

A bunch of other interesting stuff that
we can get through.

And now this is what's really
interesting. This area really intrigues

down in the bottom here because the
gamma readings are not consistent with

ground -penetrating radar.

Never seen that before.

Huh. Doesn't make sense to me.

You might have to walk me through the
actual readings. All right. I'm having a

hard time visualizing. Let's do that.

These red areas indicate that ground
-penetrating radar says it's extremely

dense, which is where the rocks are and
that sort of thing. Here's an example of

a dense area.

And in this dense area, you would expect
to see low gamma rays because it's not

coming through. It's blocking the gamma.
So let's look at that spot here. Gamma

rays are indicated by yellow or green.

If there's less gamma, it's blue.

And sure enough, here's this light blue
where the rocks were, and then here's

the same thing here. It almost matches
perfectly with the DPR. Yes. You could

look at any of these spots, any of these
blues here, and it aligns with these

reds here.

Got it.

This spot, now that we're just a little
above the green line, we were looking

here before, below the green line, but
now above there, that's red.

Let's take a close look at it.

See all the red?

All the red?

It's dense, it's hard, it's solid.

which would block gamma.

So now I'm going to flip this, and I'm
going to think, well, we're going to

a blue spot there. But instead, look
what we find.

The opposite of what I would expect.

Right. And not only what I would expect,
but what we witnessed right here.

That was consistent with tight
compaction and blocking the gammas.

it's yellow.

The highest. Not only is it high, it is
the highest right there.

It's something that it doesn't make
sense to me. Have you ever seen that in

wreck? No, no, I have not. I've not seen
this before.

There's something there. There's
something unique about this spot above

green light. As an accident investigator
and what I've been doing my entire

life, there's something under the ground
there. There's something making these

changes, these readings different.

So what could make that kind of
contrast, the high density with high

The only thing I can think of is that in
ground -penetrating radar, a rubber or

polyethylene in rubber can create that
illusion of high density.

But it would also allow gamma to come up
through it because it's not going to

block the gamma rays.

After analyzing the data, David Susi can
no longer rule out the possibility that

it was a Mogul balloon that went down at
Roswell.

So, I mean, a Mogul balloon was made of
something like neoprene. Exactly.

So, to me, that explains it. To me, that
is what I would be looking for. That's

the assumption I would make and go out
and try to find that.

Susie admits that his analysis is just
an educated guess.

And even that is based on a 1995
government report which provided no

evidence, but asserted that a Mogul
balloon crashed at Roswell.

A report millions of Americans still
don't believe.

If this group of 100 demonstrators is
correct, the U .S. government is

up the most important secret of all
time.

Alien beings who have made contact with
earthlings.

They said, well, what about the bodies?

How could so many people have come
forward and say, well, I was a kid, I

this, and I saw these bodies, and I saw
this stuff.

Some Air Force guys came out and picked
up stuff in the desert. How do we

explain that?

At that infamous 1997 press conference,
where the Air Force doubled down on its

claim that what crashed at Roswell was a
mogul balloon, it also issued a

remarkable second report that some
believe undermined its entire

We're confident once the report is out
and digested by the public that this

be the final word on the Roswell
incident.

This second report offered what the Air
Force hoped was a logical explanation to

appease those Americans who found
alleged eyewitness stories about aliens

Roswell both believable and compelling.

Bodies observed in the New Mexico desert
were probably test dummies that were

carried aloft by U .S. Air Force high
-altitude balloons for scientific

research.

Additional research uncovered
information which explained some of the

alien bodies associated with the Roswell
incident.

The second report, called Case Solved,
was accompanied by a short film produced

by the Air Force.

The project's main objective was to
study methods for returning a pilot or

astronaut safely to Earth by parachute
if forced to eject at extremely high

altitudes. For these tests, dummies were
transported up to 98 ,000 feet by

high -altitude balloons.

The Air Force contended that anyone who
thought they'd seen the military

recovering alien bodies were actually
witnessing exercises that involved

dropping anthropomorphic dummies from
high altitude balloons.

Many of the dummies landed outside the
confines of military reservations and

were regularly observed by local
civilians.

Critical examination of alleged alien
sightings consistently matched the

physical characteristics of these
dummies as well as where and how they

used.

I think it's logical to assume that the
people there

saw Air Force ambulances come out, they
saw gurneys come out, they saw body bags

come out because the dummies were put in
the body bags to protect them. And when

you put all that stuff together and spin
it, you find that it fits perfectly

with many of the occurrences in Roswell
during that era.

At the press conference, the problem
with the Air Force's explanation was

obvious to reporters.

If dummy drop exercises didn't take
place in 1947, they only started in the

early 1950s. They're talking about 1947.

You're talking about dummies used in the
50s almost a decade later.

Well, I'm afraid that's a problem that
we have with time compression.

I don't know what they saw in 1947, but
I'm quite sure it probably was Project

Mogul. UFO author and researcher Don
Schmidt believes the Air Force was...

Disrespectful, writing off alleged
eyewitnesses as having aging and faulty

memories. Oh, it's time compression.

New malady, not even in the medical
books.

Created by the Pentagon.

The older you get, you start to not only
compress the years, but also the

decades. The problem with that, all the
personnel who were here in 47, who were

involved, were no longer here in 52.

So how could they be mistaking wooden
crash dummies in 52 if they weren't even

here?

Colonel, let me just go back one more
time. You say this is case closed and

people should not believe it, but with
the major hole, though, you're saying

that they're wrong about the date. What
explanation can you give them other than

just saying, well, we just think they're
just mistaken by six years?

Ma 'am, I have no other explanation.

I'm sorry. I just have no other
explanation. I'm looking at the facts as

studied them.

And I have no other explanation for that
but what I've already given.

Yes, sir.

Because we've reviewed all the relevant
information, and we have finished this,

and we're not going to revisit it. How
do you know that you're not being used?

How do you know that you know the full
story?

You're confident that you're not part of
any cover -up, wittingly or

unwittingly?

I'm totally confident. But I think
Colonel Weaver, you might have seen him

earlier, said it best.

We can't even keep single secrets.

How could we have a conspiracy or a
cover -up?

Well, that happened in 1953. How could
anybody mess that up from 1947?

People's memories fade over time.

We think that this answers lots of
questions, and it answers them logically

with integrity.

I'm excited to hear about your findings.

So there are two styles of uppercase W's
that I notice in the journal.

Ben Smith is with forensic handwriting
expert Jennifer Nasso, who has been

analyzing writing samples from some of
the officers in the 509th Bomber Group.

She is checking to see if they could
have written the puzzling journal that

belonged to their colleague, Jesse
Marcel.

Colonel William Blanchard, commander of
the Roswell Air Base.

would certainly have known about any top
-secret operation in his sector.

When we look at the Blanchard, there are
some dissimilarities, but it's really

not a whole lot to go on.

So your professional judgment would be
there's not enough data yet to confirm

one way or the other? Right. There would
be no conclusion as to whether or not

he authored the journal based on just
the one signature that we have.

Right.

So in the Walter Haught handwriting, I
noticed that it's what we call a

combination style of writing.

Lieutenant Walter Haught was the public
information officer for the 509th who

was ordered by Colonel Blanchard to
draft that famous press release that a

flying disc had been recovered.

Where it's not all cursive, it's not all
hand printing, so some letters have

connecting strokes while others do not.

Right away, that's the difference
between what I see in the all -cursive

of the journal.

So here's the word and in the journal.
See the formation of the A? It starts up

around 2 o 'clock and then comes
counterclockwise and forms this other

When we look at the and in the Walter
Haught handwriting... Oh, totally

different.

So already I get the sense...

that this journal was not written by
Walter Hott. The characteristics that

noting thus far are not similar to what
I'm seeing in the journal. Yeah.

The next sample would be Robert Shirky.
Yep.

Lieutenant Robert Shirky was assistant
operations officer for the 509th. He

said Jesse Marcel was telling the truth
and claimed he'd seen debris flown out

of Roswell and believed... It was
extraterrestrial.

So here we have the word July in the
journal.

And just note the formation of the
uppercase J.

Here in the word July, look at the
formation of the J compared to the known

writing and the questions.

So already again, I see enough
deliberate contrast and strokes that

to pop as different.

handwriting style.

And what we're looking for is a pattern
of writing.

Edwin Easley creates this drag stroke.

Being, yeah. It's a long, exaggerated
drag stroke.

Major Edwin Easley was in charge of base
security.

He would have been responsible for
safeguarding the debris and controlling

personnel had access to it.

And you see that again. You see that
repeated throughout.

Whereas in the journal, you just have
the I dot above the letter.

So you do have some dissimilarities in
this writing sample as well.

Shoot. Well, that leaves us Patrick
Saunders.

Patrick Saunders was Colonel Blanchard's
number two, his top deputy.

He would have been in the room when
Jesse Marcel returned from the debris

to brief the commander.

There are some words and letter
combinations I do see in agreement.

So one of the words in common between
the question and the known is the word

anything. And if you look at the writing
in the journal, there is a pen lift

after the Y between the Y and the T.

And you see that again here. Right.

The Y terminates. Pretty distinct, too.

And the same thing here.

And in the known writing, you do see
that combination.

as well, or that pen lift between the Y
and the T. Yeah. I would describe that

as more of a general characteristic, but
right now it is a similarity.

Also,

when you look at the letter formation,
the termination of the Y in all three

anythings in the journal terminates
downward. There is no upward loop

Yeah. It terminates downward.

If you look at the height ratios between
the T and the H, Here you see the H is

much taller than the T. You see that
throughout the questions, the H and the

And you also see that the H in the
knowns is also taller than the T.

So do you see enough then to exclude
this as a candidate, or is it still a

viable option? I don't see enough right
now to exclude this person as a

candidate.

Of all the samples, with the Pat
Saunders one, there's potential.

This man is at the nexus of all the
secrets.

Because Patrick Saunders would have
touched every document, overheard every

phone call, would have seen everything
Colonel Blanchard's seen, and if he is

the author of the journal, then I really
think we're on to something.

He was the base commander's number two.

his right -hand man.

But who is Patrick Saunders?

What was his role in the Roswell
incident?

What did he believe?

And if he wrote the journal Jesse Marcel
kept close for decades, what secrets

did the two men share?

Investigator Ben Smith has tracked down
two of Saunders' five children.

So you were three years old in 1947, and
you were living in Roswell at the time?

Yes, we were living in Roswell.

On base.

On base.

Yes. We lived there until about 1950.

And can you tell me a little bit about
your father?

Well, my dad was a very proud officer.

He was a very personable man.

And while he could be serious, he could
also be lots of fun to be with.

Can you tell me a little bit about his
role at the Roswell Army Air Force Base?

He was in charge of assigning the troops
to the cleanup effort

at crash sites.

He was involved in the first meeting
they had after the crash with Colonel

Blanchard.

And what was your reaction when you
first found out about your dad's role at

Roswell Army Air Force Base at this
time?

You know, I wasn't even born when it
happened.

Years later, I hear my sisters asking
him questions and things like that, but

just thought everybody's dad was cool
like that.

Do you know if he ever saw or handled
the debris or any

intelligence reports about descriptions
of the debris?

said he knew it wasn't a weather
balloon.

So your father said it was definitely
not a weather balloon?

Absolutely. That's one of the things I
remember him telling me more than once,

and that he knew about weather balloons
because he dealt with them with spying

over Russia.

He did tell me that the debris helped to
develop the stealth jet fighter.

and that there was a similarity between
the jet fighter and the thing that

crashed at Roswell.

That is fascinating.

Patrick Saunders' daughter says her
father gave her a well -known book about

Roswell incident and wrote comments in
the margins.

He wrote down page numbers, and then he
highlighted sentences that he thought

were very important.

On page 142...

He highlighted Patrick Saunders was a
major and assigned as the base adjutant.

His job would have required him to
accomplish paperwork surrounding the

assigning of the troops to clean up the
debris.

Did he ever share any names about who
might have cleaned it up?

No, he just mentioned that he changed
the serial numbers and he changed files

or destroyed files about it.

Really? Mm -hmm.

So your father...

In some ways was involved then with the
cover -up and changing the serial

numbers of the soldiers. The men who
cleaned up the debris. Wow.

And he also destroyed files.

Mm -hmm.

Hmm. Or changed them.

A key figure to the whole question,
Jesse Marcel Sr., did confirm there was

cover -up, that he was not holding the
actual debris in the original press

photo.

Yes, he was concerned about Major Marcel
and the things that he was saying.

He didn't say he shouldn't have said
them. He just showed a voice of concern

about talking about these things.

You know, Jesse Marcel seemed a little
bit distraught by the fact that he had

retain his secret and lie to the public
for the good of his country, what he

believed was important to national
security.

Did you ever get a sense that your
father was disturbed by the official

government line about what was recovered
there?

I think it was hard for him to keep the
secrets that he knew.

Even if other people were talking about
them and writing books about it, I think

he struggled with that.

He took his role as officer in the Air
Force and...

ensuring national security.

He took that very seriously.

So, yeah, he did what he had to do and
was instructed to do and

made no apologies.

You know, we were warned not to talk
about Roswell outside the family.

And we generally didn't talk about it.

This is the first time I've really
talked to people about what he said.

Some of the threats that others have
described were pretty intimidating,

Threats to your career, threats to your
safety, threats to your legacy, and

perhaps even your family.

Your entire family was at risk.

So do you think he was protecting you
from the secrets that he knew?

Absolutely.

He said that the world wasn't ready to
know the truth about what happened at

Roswell. And I asked him what he meant
by that, and he said, well, it would

cause social upheaval and problems.

Why? They weren't sure whether the
beings were friendly or not.

By the term beings, she said she
understood her dad was referring to

extraterrestrials. the aliens who had
sent the spaceship that crashed at

to Earth.

Knowing your dad, what do you think
happened at Roswell in 1947?

Knowing my dad, if it was nothing or a
weather balloon, he would have just said

what it was and let's move on.

Do you feel like he had answers to who
these possible beings were and where

came from and what they wanted?

I think he was full of questions about
them.

I don't think he had come up with all
the answers about what they found at

Roswell.

I think a guy by the name of Patrick
Saunders could have written this

Wow. That actually got me pretty
excited.

That is interesting because it's a whole
new person to take a very close look

at. That opens up a whole other sort of
avenue, doesn't it? It really does.

The real possibility that one of Jesse
Marcel's fellow officers in the 509th,

Patrick Saunders, wrote the journal that
was in Marcel's possession is an

incredible twist in Ben Smith's
investigation of what happened at

Now, Smith wants to go over the results
of his investigation with Joe

Pappalardo, the veteran aviation
journalist he has been consulting with

start.

No explanation is going to be complete
without a physical component, probably.

Please tell me you found a spaceship.

Oh, dude, I wish I could tell you that I
came back with the smoking gun to prove

that it's definitely a Mogul balloon or
definitely an extraterrestrial

spacecraft. I haven't found anything
definitive.

Either way, and that is frustrating.

Well, if it was easy, it would be
cracked by now, so I'm eager to hear

have actually having covered.

Chuck Wade claimed that he had a piece
of alien spacecraft.

The lab, unfortunately, could not find
anything extraterrestrial about the

metal. For me, it doesn't really impact
the Roswell question. Either way, it was

collected on the plains of San Agustin
some distance away, except that it's a

knock against the established evidence
of ufologists.

So in terms of the probable crash site,
I knew you were going to bring some

pretty cool technology to investigate
that. Did you find anything that would

lead you to think that something
happened there? We found a pretty

magnetic signature close to what would
have been described as the impact

identified by a witness account. We took
some soil samples, but we couldn't

actually find when or why this anomaly
was created.

We haven't found any evidence that
definitively proves.

Something extraterrestrial crashed here.
Did you find anything that would

indicate that something else crashed?

To the south of the established debris
field, the FAA crash site investigator

found a strange contrast in data that we
don't know what it means. It's not

metal because our magnetometer didn't
pick up any metal.

There might be something that could be
some kind of plastic or neoprene layer.

That would buttress that.

argument that a balloon crashed there
and here's an actual physical remain

it that would be about as close to a
smoking gun as someone who doesn't

in ufos like myself would cling to
desperately probably yeah well uh a lot

the facts are fuzzy still and i'm still
trying to piece the puzzle together

But I feel confident that the government
lied to the American people about what

it collected at that debris field. There
were others like Jesse in that unit at

the 519 group who had some of the same
ideas.

I've spent a lot of time now with the
Marcel family, and I think at the very

least what they wanted was vindication.

Jesse Marcel's three grandchildren have
been eagerly awaiting the results of Ben

Smith's investigation and want to know.

what he has found out about the strange
journey.

Thank you guys for making yourselves
available to chat with me. I wanted to

circle back with you and share some
interesting turns in the case and some

unexpected surprises.

There's one thing that's still missing
from the investigation, and that's

evidence. I mean, there's a piece out
there somewhere.

Well, we didn't find anything yet. Sure.
Jesse, you were there with me in

Pennsylvania when we went to the code
breaker.

Without the key, the other half of the
puzzle...

We can't crack that homebrew code.

So what's left is to keep looking for
that other half. But that makes an

interesting challenge because we didn't
know who wrote it.

I refocused my efforts back on the inner
circle at the 509th group to see if I

could identify who might have written
the journal.

I collected a few more handwriting
samples. There was one individual who

actually...

With the short sample that we had
matched to some degree that we couldn't

it out. Oh, interesting.

This would have been the base adjutant
at the 509th group.

The second in command, a guy named
Patrick Saunders, he was really close

Colonel Blanchard. So close, in fact,
that Colonel Blanchard was his best man

his wedding.

Oh, wow.

For me, as an intelligence officer, if
I'm looking for somebody with access to

information, this guy is as close as it
gets. Definitely.

This is very exciting.

Did your grandfather ever mention that
name to you?

I don't recall that name coming from
him.

Obviously, they had a relationship for
grandpa to have ended up with that

journal. I was able to track down his
children.

A lot of the things Patrick Saunders
told his children matched.

what Jesse Sr. told you three, that it
was something not of this world, and

there was a cover -up. Okay.

He even mentioned that he was directly
responsible for organizing the cover -up

by changing the names and the personnel
records of people involved in the

cleanup effort at the debris field.

Oh, my gosh.

Another echo in Patrick Saunders' story
with his family is he said almost the

exact same thing, verbatim. The world
isn't ready for this kind of

And, Denise, you were with me in Houma.
Your cousin mentioned the same thing.

Yep, exact same words.

His eyes kind of glazed over, and he
said, there are things that this world

not ready for.

I wonder if they discussed it to come up
with almost like the same terminology.

This is just so completely amazing.

I think you're closer to the truth now
than we've ever been or anybody's ever

been. Sounds like it.

Another interesting comment Patrick
Saunders made was actually about Jesse

He thought that Jesse had gone too far,
that he had said something he shouldn't,

he had told the public too much.

When Grandpa came out in 1978 and told
the story about what had happened, I

wonder if that...

I wonder if that worried him a little
bit. Because I know it would worry me if

was trying to keep something covered up
and this man just came out and said, no,

what everybody saw was something from
here. Yeah, that duty to keep quiet is a

pretty powerful commitment.

I think he was courageous for coming out
and telling it because he was going

against the protocol.

He felt that everybody deserved to know
what the truth was and that the cover

-up needed to end.

We started this journey together trying
to figure out the journal and to prove

with evidence that your grandfather was
telling the truth.

Now, we didn't quite get to either of
those ends. How do you feel about this

investigation, and what does it tell you
about your grandfather?

If anything, you've added more
credibility to those stories, and I

getting closer than ever to resolving
this.

And I'll just echo that. I think that...

Everything that you've come across has
actually more or less confirmed for me

that Grandpa and our dad were telling us
the truth and that they did want

everybody to know what really did
happen.

I looked at the journal recently and I
found a quote that really captures sort

of the investigation.

And the quote was, keep your eye on the
donut and not the hole.

If we just focus on the lack of
evidence, the hole in the center, we

the evidence that we have found.

I think that this journal has more
secrets to give, more evidence to

point me to, than what I've found so
far.

And I'm reluctant to simply put it away.

To some, Jesse Marcel is a courageous
truth -sayer.

To others, a man who let his imagination
get the best of him.

Either way, He believed he'd witnessed
an extraordinary event, and he was not

alone.

I'm Lawrence Fishburne. Thank you for
watching History's Greatest Mysteries.