Lest we forget...
Research about Amelia Earhart on Saipan
Saturday
Monday
If I had a nickel for every fellow who thought he'd found the Electra...
If I had a nickel for every Tom Dick and Harriet who trooped out a blurry, fuzzy photo that shows absolutely not her Electra, I'd be... well, what's the point?
If somehow someone shoved her plane off Aslito airfield where it was taken by the Japanese who arrested her... if they somehow shoved that in 1944 into the ocean - that would be news.
However, over a dozen US Marines saw her plane, guarded her plane, found her briefcase, found her grave (a partial grave, her body had been moved, they only found an arm and a ribcage). I've been to Saipan where 200 eyewitnesses report seeing her, washing her clothes, tending to her wounds, seeing her incarcerated, the dozen GI's who found the Electra in a hangar, her briefcase, passport, the GI's who watched as the plane was doused with gas and burned - on the field.
I even have a copy of a coded message asking "what's that big fire on the runway?" the day it was torched. It's silly, and after knowing where the heck she is buried, and where the plane is buried, funny. If people want to hear eyewitness reports, they can.
If someone wants to sponsor a trip to dig up the frame (that doesn't change over time) I can help them, if someone wants to take a trip to Saipan and dig up the rest of her bones - where I've been told multiple times where they are - we can.
In the meantime, read about another fella who got sucked into the "she's buried at sea" rubric - completely disregarding the human eyewitnesses - the "islanders" they cannot believe who saw her land the Electra on Mili atoll, who saw her arrested, taken to Majuro, then Jaluit then Garapan, who tended to her wounds, who have reported these things on camera - not sure why people convince themselves of something that isn't supported by the reports, is it mysogyny? Misanthropy? Xenophobia? No clue.
But here we go - yet another fella who will produce zero evidence.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/former-us-air-force-officer-045818108.html
Let's recap shall we?
This is what the data, the research and the eyewitness reports show. (After 35 years of research, interviews and footage).
1. She didn't make Howland so she turned to land at Gardner Island. She was already 200 Miles NW of Howland when she turned - which was an error she had done in Dakkar and Burbank. She was off course, and her straight line took her to another island.
2. She went straight for Mili Atoll and was able to land the Electra on its then mile long exposed atoll. (Now mostly covered in water).
3. EYEWITNESSES saw her land. Dick Spink, who makes boats, has traveled extensively in the region -interviewed the family of two fishermen who saw the plane land. They fished in that region daily, they saw the plane land on their atoll.
4. She lost her brake assembly as it landed. Pieces of it were retrieved by Dick Spink, taken to an NTSB investigator Jim Hayton (Seattle) who confirmed "beyond a shadow of doubt" that it came from her plane. He happens to have the identical Electra brake assembly - only used on her plane.
5. The Japanese came to the atoll and arrested her. The arrest was witnessed by islanders including the "Queen of Mili atoll" who was later interviewed by an Australian author who wrote a book in the 1980's. Others interviewed her, heard the same story.
6. Amelia and Fred (badly wounded) were taken first to Majuro. A stevedore who later worked on Majuro with US Navy Andrew Bryce - (pictured on this page) told him that he helped the Japanese drag her plane across Mili to the lagoon, then put it on a Japanese barge. The tools used to drag it (small rail cars) were found by Dick Spink and others in a recent trip to the island.
6. She and the plane and Fred were put aboard the Kyoshu, taken to Jaluit. In Jaluit she and the plane were seen by local islanders, included a young boy who later became a congressman in those islands. Bilimon Amaron was a local medic who was ordered to tend to Amelia and Fred's wounds. His testimony is on camera (filmed by Mike Harris) and other researchers in the 80's. Mike and I interviewed his business partner who knew Bilimon well over decades of their working together 10 years ago. He vouches for his testimony, as he puts it "Honest beyond reproach, we all knew that if said he had done that, he had. It wasn't a secret."
7. She and Fred were flown by seaplane to Saipan. The plane was taken to Saipan by ship. The Electra was stored on Aslito field where dozens of local people saw it, both in its hangar and out of it. I've interviewed or collected interviews with 12 US Marines who saw it while they were fighting the battle for Saipan.
8. Fred was reportedly executed for "being the spy." They had two aerial Fairchild cameras on board, placed there while the plane was refurbished by the US Navy in Burbank. (The Navy mechanic who installed them is on record). Fred was executed early on for "being the spy" - and Amelia kept as a "bargaining chip" they never used.
9. Saipan was part of the Japanese nation since 1914. They considered Saipan "homeland" and their Naval headquarters was based there. There was also a prison, one of 19 in the Japanese records from 1930's to the end of the war. I've been to the library in Tokyo where they have all the known volumes of names and dates from all of their prisons and prisoners. Detailed, well kept records. When asked why the only volume missing was from Saipan, the librarian told me "these are the volumes that were returned from the US after the war." Only one was missing; the prison in Saipan.
10. Mike Harris and I filmed interviews with 5 US veterans who were on Saipan or knew about her presence there. One found her briefcase and passport in a safe. Another saw the same briefcase, and was the one who decoded the message "We have found Earhart's plane on Aslito airfield" in July of 44.
(Why people pretend like they don't know what they're talking about, when they repeat the same exact story is beyond me. In Saipan, there were 200 islanders who reported seeing her there, in a recent trip there, fifteen new eyewitnesses came forward.)
11. New eyewitnesses include a man whose mother tended to her in the hospital, who warned him not to tell anyone as the Japanese executed "spies." Two 80 year olds who both saw her paraded around the island on the back of the truck. There were three Americans on the truck. (Fred had already been executed.) The other two were US pilots who were shot down prior to the US landing on Saipan, who were doing reconnaisance. Both of those pilots were executed, one shot, the other beheaded (and was the source of other reports of AE being shot or beheaded, as islanders knew about Americans who that happened to.) Those two pilots were part of an official military inquest after the war - their bodies were recovered to see if they had been the victims of torture (they were not.)
12. Amelia died of dystenery not long after being seen by these two islanders. (Both spoke of the same day, how she had been parked in front of their school for half an hour, neither had spoken about it until I interviewed them). As one man said "I was 12 years old. She was the first "caucasian" women I had ever seen, and she was wearing men's clothing, her hands tied behind her back. It's not something you would ever forget." That was in May of 1944. (7 years after she arrived in Saipan).
13. She died of dystentery. Her body was buried along with Noonan's. Later, two GI's Hansen and Burke reported to CBS correspondent in the 1960's that they were ordered to dig them up. Later in an interview in the 1970's (Chicago Tribune, UPI) they said "they had only found an arm and a partial ribcage."
14. Her body was moved, reportedly by the islanders who had cared for her, who didn't feel she got a proper Christian burial. That's why Hansen and Burke only found an arm and a partial ribcage.
15. The rest of her is still on Saipan. I have a pretty good idea of that location based on a number of factors; the Electra was burned (witnessed by multiple GI's) and buried at the end of the runway (along with all the other crashed planes and detritus from the war). The end of the runway still exists. (The new airport was built in another direction)
However, the NTSB investigator tells me that the steel structure of her plane would be intact, and as it was a unique size, and could be identified by proper ground penetrating radar.
That's what happened.
Why it hasn't been told, is beyone my ability to comprehend. It wasn't that hard to find or figure out - and I am a filmmaker who has spent years looking at a number of other unusual topics. I've written and or directed 8 theatrical features, and have worked on others. I worked on the film "Amelia" as a historian (digital media curatore of all the footage, books, and details of her life) as well as a reference in the Diane Keaton version.
At some point, because of the vitriol involved with the people who are most adamant about their search for her, I put together a documentary with the footage I'd shot, and let the concept go.
Yes, I know that if I went to Saipan I'd know where to find the plane, and I have a pretty good idea of where she's buried - a place no one has looked before.
But that would require an Herculean effort. This guy spent 11 million looking for her in a place she never was. I'm sorry to report it, but frankly, am posting this because it's tiresome to repeat the same story. It hasn't changed.
One day I will write my own book about my journey to this knowledge - because I'm not interested in proving anything to anyone. Some people cling to their beliefs because it is what keeps them on the planet. In my case, I appreciate the arguments, but having had numerous conversations with Amelia about her journey - with the help of mediums who work with law enforcement agencies nationwide, so I know how effective they can be - her story has never been told.
People focus on the wrong things.
She landed the plane. Amazing achievement.
She was the first POW of a war that didn't begin for another 4 years.
She was asked to take spy cameras aboard her plane and chafed at the idea. "Imagine me being a spy?" is a comment overheard, much debated, but part of the record of her story. Indeed. Imagine.
Even so, it was Fred who was executed for being the spy - because he was the man. AE survived another 7 years in a difficult place to be in. But she exists today on the flipside, is available to anyone who really wants to know what happened.
She's funny, witty, and still has much to teach people on the planet. That's not my opinion, theory or belief - it's just what the footage, numerous interviews show.
And that didn't cost 11 million to report.
She deserves a proper credit in history as to who she really was. It's about time someone really told her story.
Wednesday
The Saipan Veteran Eyewitnesses
Lest we forget these fellows - whom I interviewed in 2003. All three are no longer with us, but all three were on Saipan, their stories have been corroborated by a number of sources, plus I went to Saipan and filmed 15 near eyewitnesses who said the same things these three GI's said.
Thomas Devine saw her plane, saw it destroyed, Robert Wallack found her briefcase, passport - held onto them for two weeks before he turned it over to the CO for Julious Nabers - who Devine witnesses guarded the Electra (but didn't know it was him, until Julious repeated the same story word for word of what he told people who tried to enter the hangar "order is orders" - a corroboration from Devine without him knowing it was one.
Nabers decoded the message that said they had found her plane in July 44, guarded the plane for 24 hours - as in the entire day without sleep - was only given half a peanut butter sandwich (odd but telling detail), later saw the briefcase that was turned over to his CO (Clarence R. Wallace, whose uniform hangs in a frame in Quantico) Nabers also watched the plane destroyed by US military, and gave the SAME DESCRIPTION as did Devine, even thought neither ever met.
Later, on Saipan, we interviewed 15 new eyewitnesses who told the same story. She was brought there, incarcerated, died in custody - was dug up by two GI's (as was Fred) and partially recovered - the plane was found, and after some weeks deciding what to do about it, the "people who can decide these things" decided to destroy it. It was buried at the end of the runway at Aslito where it's steel frame rests to this day. Not a theory, not a belief, not an opinion. Just what people consistently report.
Thomas Devine saw her plane, saw it destroyed, Robert Wallack found her briefcase, passport - held onto them for two weeks before he turned it over to the CO for Julious Nabers - who Devine witnesses guarded the Electra (but didn't know it was him, until Julious repeated the same story word for word of what he told people who tried to enter the hangar "order is orders" - a corroboration from Devine without him knowing it was one.
Nabers decoded the message that said they had found her plane in July 44, guarded the plane for 24 hours - as in the entire day without sleep - was only given half a peanut butter sandwich (odd but telling detail), later saw the briefcase that was turned over to his CO (Clarence R. Wallace, whose uniform hangs in a frame in Quantico) Nabers also watched the plane destroyed by US military, and gave the SAME DESCRIPTION as did Devine, even thought neither ever met.
Later, on Saipan, we interviewed 15 new eyewitnesses who told the same story. She was brought there, incarcerated, died in custody - was dug up by two GI's (as was Fred) and partially recovered - the plane was found, and after some weeks deciding what to do about it, the "people who can decide these things" decided to destroy it. It was buried at the end of the runway at Aslito where it's steel frame rests to this day. Not a theory, not a belief, not an opinion. Just what people consistently report.
Here's an article from USA TODAY:
HAGATNA, Guam — A man with ties to Saipan shared information that promotes a theory that Amelia Earhart was brought to the island and held prisoner 80 years ago.
William “Bill” Sablan, who lives on Chamorro, said his uncle Tun Akin Tuho worked at the prison where Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan were taken prisoner in Saipan.
The History Channel shared the theory that the two were taken prisoner in a recent TV special called Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence.
Eighty years after Earhart made her voyage around the world, people are still trying to figure out what happened to the famed pilot.
The theory shared by History’s TV special says Earhart was captured and executed on Saipan by the Empire of Japan. The U.S. government and military knew it (and even found and exhumed her body). And both governments have been lying about it ever since.
Sablan’s uncle’s story fits this theory.
In 1971, he was speaking with his uncle and cousin about his dream of becoming a pilot when his uncle mentioned the people that were held prisoner in Saipan.
His uncle described an American woman and man taken to a Saipan prison in the mid-1930s by ship. He said they were found with a plane on a southern Pacific Island under Japanese control.
Sablan said Earhart was brought to Saipan, for it was a hub for the Japanese.
His uncle said that he remembers the woman and man because Caucasian people were rare on Saipan. The prison was usually quiet, but the pair's arrival caused a commotion.
“They had no reason to be there,” Sablan said.
His uncle said the plane they were flying was dropped somewhere in the ocean before coming to Saipan.
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The uncle said that the two were in the Saipan prison for two or three days before they were killed.
Sablan said it's possible the U.S. found and relocated the remains.
According to news files, in 1960 a CBS radio man, Fred Goerner, spoke with at least a dozen reliable witnesses from Saipan, who shared that before the war, two white people arrived on Saipan — described as “flyers” or “spies” — and they were held in the Japanese jail.
They said the flyers were tall and one of them was a woman, but her hair was cut short and she was wearing men’s clothing, files state.
The year was 1937, the same year Earhart and Noonan were lost.
The History TV special theory rests on an ambiguous photograph, said to have been taken in 1937, that might show Earhart and Noonan alive on a dock in the Marshall Islands. At the time, the islands were controlled by Japan.
A Japanese military history blogger Kota Yamano undermined a new theory that Amelia Earhart survived a crash in the Pacific Ocean during her historic attempted around-the-world flight in 1937.
The history blogger posted the same photograph that formed the backbone of a History channel documentary that argued that Earhart was alive in July 1937 — but the book the photo was in was apparently published two years before the famed aviator disappeared.
A retired federal agent said he discovered the image in 2012 in the National Archives in College Park, Md. The blogger said he found the same image digitized in Japan's National Diet Library.
Josephine Blanco, center, hugs her nephew, Harry Blanco, as John Blanco, also a relative, looks on.
(Erwin Encinares)
Two persons reportedly saw on two separate occasions the lost aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart on Saipan, the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
Josephine Blanco, a 93-year old who reportedly saw Earhart in the Tanapag Harbor in 1937, noted that at the time, she didn’t know it was Earhart. She was 12 years old at the time.
“I cannot say she is pretty because I saw her from a distance,” Blanco said yesterday at a welcoming dinner at the Fiesta Resort and Spa Saipan.
“I didn’t even go inside [the harbor area],” she said, adding that it was a commotion in the area that caught her attention. She said she was halfway toward the harbor, and that was where she caught a glimpse of a woman’s figure.
“I didn’t go there to look for somebody or meet somebody. I just happened to be there,” she said, adding that she found out it was Earhart only after World War II.
WWII started in 1939.
“I didn’t tell anybody, I didn’t know about her,” Blanco said. “Only my family knew—my sister worked [in the area], and she knew too.”
Blanco mentioned other family members who knew of Earhart, but noted that they have all passed away.
Eighty-five-year-old Joaquin T. Salas was 11 when he believed he saw Earhart in 1944.
Salas noted that he is unsure if the woman he saw then was Earhart, but was sure that he saw her on a Japanese military truck with three others.
“There were two men and one lady, a blonde. They put one ribbon on her face, and her hands were tied,” he said. The truck parked in front of their house, which was across the post office in Chalan Kanoa today.
Salas said he watched them stay in front of their residence for about an hour.
“After that, they took off. I don’t know where they went,” he said.
Salas was able to reproduce through a drawing what he remembers were the positions of the military truck.
Salas believes the Japanese captured Earhart, and that they parked in front of their house at that time.
Sunday
False Memory Premise
Interesting comments on investigator Les Kinney's Facebook page the other day:
Someone weighing in the "evidence of Earhart being on Saipan." This person wrote:
"But do you have any non-mystical basis for saying that there is "no evidence" of AE on Nikumaroro?"
I think he might be referring to my research ("Hacking the Afterlife") where Amelia, or someone who knows as much about Amelia as I do - confirmed details via the use of three mediums, one who works with law enforcement agencies nationwide and missing person cases.
Let's just assume that's what he's referring to - if I may.
I didn't ask "Amelia" any questions I didn't already know the answers to. Using three different mediums, I asked the mediums the questions - I already knew the answers - and in each case, these mediums, who didn't know anything about Earhart's trip or what I'd discovered in my 30 years of research, including working on every major feature film about her as a consultant or researcher - said the thing I already knew.
Except in one case. That was with Jennifer Shaffer, a medium who has worked with NYPD commissioner Bill Bratton, FBI agents and others on cases (out of public purview, but verifiable). In my filming her - I ask simple, direct questions. I asked what "happened to her body?"
"Amelia" offered that the "two soldiers who dug her up only found an arm." Jennifer could not have heard of this - because I had not. I was aware who the two GI's were - and their report about digging her up. But that they "only found an arm?"
It took me six months to find the evidence of that claim - which was made in 1977, published by UPI in The Chicago Tribune. Wasn't easy to find at that time. The "two GI's" who claimed to have been ordered to dig her up said "We only found an arm and a partial ribcage."
The point of the story wasn't that "aha! I've found another detail!" it was to simply say that there was only person (no longer on the planet) who could have told Jennifer (and me) that detail (on camera.)
Not mystical. Unless one considers UPI a mystical source.
But I digress.
My reply to this wag's comment was:
"One might consider...that there was a settlement on Nikumaroro in the 1920s. So there's going to be plenty of detritus to sort thru. (on that island.)
What trip is this now.., the 7th or 8th to the island of Nikumaroro? So far found a man's shoe and turtle bones.
Meanwhile on camera, there are 15 new eyewitnesses who claim to have seen her on Saipan. (See some samples to the right of this post.)
People who fed her, washed her clothes, son whose mother treated her in the hospital, 2 gents who saw her in a truck on the same day guarded by Japanese soldiers, (that's 2 different fellas on the same day) ... then there's the US Marines (for those white folks who can't seem to bring themselves to believe accounts of indigenous people) who found her briefcase, passport, book of photos of her (from japanese home) found the electra, guarded it, flew it, watched it burn... dug up her body.
Do you mean those fellas? You'd think if all these folks were making up a story, there'd be one similar made up story somewhere else, on some other island by some other lying US Marine or islander...maybe even a single one on Nikumaroro -- which is not deserted, never deserted by locals.. just not inhabited by "Europeans."
To date not a single eyewitness to emerge from another island. Yet over 200 on Saipanese (via Fred Goerner, Les, Dick, Mike Harris and others) claim to have seen her.
Funny how that detail seems mystical. It's mystical and mysterious why people aren't paying attention to eyewitnesses. You know.. people who saw her.
To which our pal and long time researcher, former Federal investigator Les Kinney posted a reply:
"Tighar says all those witnesses, including the highest ranking military officers were all suffering from "False Memory Perception."
The initial poster replied:
Like a somewhat wise man once said, "trust but verify." I'd say that no court SHOULD allow convictions based SOLELY on eyewitness testimony, but eyewitness testimony should certainly be admissible in court with appropriate caveats. Like any other evidence. The problem with the AE-on-Saipan eyewitness evidence is that it's tainted seven ways from Sunday, and I, at least, am too stupid to figure out how to separate the wheat from the chaff.
To which I replied:
"I love that one. "False memory perception." I call that "the racist filter." No other way to communicate it. Otherwise there would be cases of false memory perception on many islands. Or even one. Can't be that only one island's got this false memory disease. Unless they made it up.
And bless (this poster's) heart, but clearly he's never seen any of that footage of the US Marines talking about what they saw on Saipan. But then - they're US Marines, and they tend to not prevaricate, or use terms like "seven ways to Sunday" when it comes to their testimonials. In general - the US Marines tend to stick to what they saw. Islanders on the other hand - if you actually watched any of their interviews - do the same.
I can tell you this - and I don't know the person who posted this comment, but I will share this for your edification - Saipanese are extremely reluctanct to speak or appear on camera. There's a reason for this - and those who claim they've got false memories are injecting their own prejudices onto them.
Saipanese are extremely reluctant to speak on camera because they were part of Japan since 1914, they got along well with Japanese suger cane traders who brought wealth to their country. They don't paint those years with the same brush Americans or "europeans" do (that's the term they use for Caucasians.).
So getting a Saipanese to speak on camera and say "I saw Amelia Earhart" is next to impossible. They might say "I saw a European woman who was dressed like a man who had her hands tied behind her back." But they will never ever say something that they saw without adding "I didn't know who this person was at the time, but I do now." They just won't do it. On or off camera.
I know - I spent 8 weeks filming interviews. I'm a professional filmmaker, have been at it for 30 years - I know when someone is "inventing a story" or corroborating one. But the Saipanese were the hardest to get to talk on camera about anything. Why? Well - it's in their culture.
The Japanese (after the soldiers from Manchuria arrived) started chopping off heads of kids who didn't bow low enough. Up until 1939 they got along well with the Japanese who ran their schools... but once the Manchurian battled weary soldiers arrived - everything changed.
They treated Saipanese "like slaves." Took their property, homes, kicked them out and into caves and the jungle. Then the Americans came - they were told by the Japanses the US soldiers were cannibals who ate children. (Who could argue?) So when the US forces arrived, the Saipanese hid in caves. Until one soldier, who spoke Spanish called out to them.
People claim the Saipanese committed suicide rather than be captured on the Banzai cliffs - I've been there, seen the footage from the GI's filming people jumping to their death. None of them are Saipanese. They aren't Buddhist. They didn't listen to the Fatwa from the Emperor about "having a better rebirth if they committed suicide." The people who jumped from the Banzai cliffs were all Japanese family members - some pushed - and their servants. Saipanese actually mention this if you dig deep enough "We weren't there because we're Catholics."
Prior to Japan taking over the island in 1914, it was German and then Spanish. Many of their epistles are in Spanish. This one GI - a US soldier spoke Spanish and they replied from their caves... so they weren't "torched in the caves" by flame throwers.
During the occupation by the US many stories were gathered... and then not spoken of. I interviewed a woman who was there, was interviewed by US forces,who told them she saw AE in 1937 - come ashore. Her story - note for note - was corroborated 70 years later by someone she never met, whose father described the exact same events. Word for word.
So you're flat out wrong about the "7 ways to Sunday comment." Saipan became a training base for the CIA (it's still there, deserted, as well as the satellite equipment.) Saipan is still used by "black ops" (I interviewed a number of islanders about them) and they've been told since the US arrived - "Don't talk to anyone upon penalty of death." Saipan has been used as toxic site for dumping US chemicals from the military for years. Empty drums from PCB's litter the island.
It came up during an interview. This one Saipanese fellow agreed to speak on camera about what his family told him about seeing Earhart and he said "I don't care what they do to me, I just want the truth to be told." I asked him what he meant by that comment. He lowered his voice. "There are people here who don't want me to talk to you."
Be that as it may - I was able to get 15 new eyewitnesses in the following manner - I asked simply "What was your experience prior to the war? What happened when the US arrived?" Those stories were rich and full of details that I could corroborate - where they lived, what house they lived in, what happened. Then I'd ask "So did you ever hear about any US pilots being shot down or captured?" That's how I found out that two other pilots had been shot down by the Japanese prior to the US invasion or landing.
If they knew a story about Earhart (mom washed her clothes, mom took care of her at the hospital, etc) they told me. I didn't tell them anything about what I already knew, or what Goerner knew.
Saipanese refer to the War as beginning in July of 1944. Because that's when it began for them.
Anyways, I could go on - but I recommend,just watch the interviews. Listen to people tell their story. Open up your mind. If you' were even remotely correct - that they were lying or prevaricating or "misremembering" then you'd have to explain where that didn't occur on ANY OTHER ISLAND (ever) or how US Marines could tell the exact same stories other islanders have told consistently Sorry.
I can tell you that when I arrived on Saipan, the US liason pulled me aside and said "I'm friends with the guys from Tighar, and I want you to know that what you're doing is nonsense." I said to him the same I'll say to you - "Well, let's see what people say."
He listened, he attended a public talk we gave with what we found - and he heard from islanders that he knew his whole life, whom he trusted ... and after hearing them tell their story in this meeting (it's on YouTube on EarhartOnSaipan.com) he said "I have to tell you - I was a skeptic. I didn't believe a word prior to this meeting. But I know these people. I know they are honest people. And if they said they saw her, saw her plane, heard and knew what happened to her - I've changed my mind."
It's never too late to hear the truth.
Someone weighing in the "evidence of Earhart being on Saipan." This person wrote:
"But do you have any non-mystical basis for saying that there is "no evidence" of AE on Nikumaroro?"
I think he might be referring to my research ("Hacking the Afterlife") where Amelia, or someone who knows as much about Amelia as I do - confirmed details via the use of three mediums, one who works with law enforcement agencies nationwide and missing person cases.
Let's just assume that's what he's referring to - if I may.
I didn't ask "Amelia" any questions I didn't already know the answers to. Using three different mediums, I asked the mediums the questions - I already knew the answers - and in each case, these mediums, who didn't know anything about Earhart's trip or what I'd discovered in my 30 years of research, including working on every major feature film about her as a consultant or researcher - said the thing I already knew.
Except in one case. That was with Jennifer Shaffer, a medium who has worked with NYPD commissioner Bill Bratton, FBI agents and others on cases (out of public purview, but verifiable). In my filming her - I ask simple, direct questions. I asked what "happened to her body?"
"Amelia" offered that the "two soldiers who dug her up only found an arm." Jennifer could not have heard of this - because I had not. I was aware who the two GI's were - and their report about digging her up. But that they "only found an arm?"
It took me six months to find the evidence of that claim - which was made in 1977, published by UPI in The Chicago Tribune. Wasn't easy to find at that time. The "two GI's" who claimed to have been ordered to dig her up said "We only found an arm and a partial ribcage."
The point of the story wasn't that "aha! I've found another detail!" it was to simply say that there was only person (no longer on the planet) who could have told Jennifer (and me) that detail (on camera.)
Not mystical. Unless one considers UPI a mystical source.
But I digress.
My reply to this wag's comment was:
"One might consider...that there was a settlement on Nikumaroro in the 1920s. So there's going to be plenty of detritus to sort thru. (on that island.)
What trip is this now.., the 7th or 8th to the island of Nikumaroro? So far found a man's shoe and turtle bones.
Meanwhile on camera, there are 15 new eyewitnesses who claim to have seen her on Saipan. (See some samples to the right of this post.)
People who fed her, washed her clothes, son whose mother treated her in the hospital, 2 gents who saw her in a truck on the same day guarded by Japanese soldiers, (that's 2 different fellas on the same day) ... then there's the US Marines (for those white folks who can't seem to bring themselves to believe accounts of indigenous people) who found her briefcase, passport, book of photos of her (from japanese home) found the electra, guarded it, flew it, watched it burn... dug up her body.
Do you mean those fellas? You'd think if all these folks were making up a story, there'd be one similar made up story somewhere else, on some other island by some other lying US Marine or islander...maybe even a single one on Nikumaroro -- which is not deserted, never deserted by locals.. just not inhabited by "Europeans."
To date not a single eyewitness to emerge from another island. Yet over 200 on Saipanese (via Fred Goerner, Les, Dick, Mike Harris and others) claim to have seen her.
Funny how that detail seems mystical. It's mystical and mysterious why people aren't paying attention to eyewitnesses. You know.. people who saw her.
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| Father saw her come ashore. His story matched another eyewitnesses word for word. |
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| Saw her come ashore. Her story is identical to the father of another eyewitness. |
To which our pal and long time researcher, former Federal investigator Les Kinney posted a reply:
"Tighar says all those witnesses, including the highest ranking military officers were all suffering from "False Memory Perception."
The initial poster replied:
Like a somewhat wise man once said, "trust but verify." I'd say that no court SHOULD allow convictions based SOLELY on eyewitness testimony, but eyewitness testimony should certainly be admissible in court with appropriate caveats. Like any other evidence. The problem with the AE-on-Saipan eyewitness evidence is that it's tainted seven ways from Sunday, and I, at least, am too stupid to figure out how to separate the wheat from the chaff.
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| Currently serves in the US Military. His uncle saw her in a prison cell when he was incarcerated next to her. |
To which I replied:
"I love that one. "False memory perception." I call that "the racist filter." No other way to communicate it. Otherwise there would be cases of false memory perception on many islands. Or even one. Can't be that only one island's got this false memory disease. Unless they made it up.
And bless (this poster's) heart, but clearly he's never seen any of that footage of the US Marines talking about what they saw on Saipan. But then - they're US Marines, and they tend to not prevaricate, or use terms like "seven ways to Sunday" when it comes to their testimonials. In general - the US Marines tend to stick to what they saw. Islanders on the other hand - if you actually watched any of their interviews - do the same.
I can tell you this - and I don't know the person who posted this comment, but I will share this for your edification - Saipanese are extremely reluctanct to speak or appear on camera. There's a reason for this - and those who claim they've got false memories are injecting their own prejudices onto them.
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| Was 12 when he and his brother saw her on the back of a truck. His account matches another eyewitness for time of day and location. Asked "how do you know who it was?" he said "I don't. But when the first "european woman" you see (their word for caucasian) dressed as a man with her hands tied behind being guarded by Japanese soldiers... it's not something you forget." |
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| Was 12 when he saw her on the back of a truck. His story matched another eyewitnesses story word for word. If it's a false memory - how can the details match 70 years after the fact and the two eyewitnesses have never met? |
So getting a Saipanese to speak on camera and say "I saw Amelia Earhart" is next to impossible. They might say "I saw a European woman who was dressed like a man who had her hands tied behind her back." But they will never ever say something that they saw without adding "I didn't know who this person was at the time, but I do now." They just won't do it. On or off camera.
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| His mother tended to AE's wounds and she swore him to silence. Until this interview. |
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| Lived next door to the prison. Her grandfather told her how he witnessed the beheading of an American pilot (that was a man, and he was shot down in April 44, later verified details.) |
The Japanese (after the soldiers from Manchuria arrived) started chopping off heads of kids who didn't bow low enough. Up until 1939 they got along well with the Japanese who ran their schools... but once the Manchurian battled weary soldiers arrived - everything changed.
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| Works at the musuem, spoke of the Japanese Saipanese relationship and documents from those years. |
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| He and his family were kicked out of their home, lived in a cave. He helped gather the testimony for the shoot, as the locals trusted him that I wasn't exploiting (or paying) anyone. |
Prior to Japan taking over the island in 1914, it was German and then Spanish. Many of their epistles are in Spanish. This one GI - a US soldier spoke Spanish and they replied from their caves... so they weren't "torched in the caves" by flame throwers.
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| In the Marshalls - saw her plane in Jaluit. |
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| In the Marshalls. Heard they'd captured a spy. |
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| Marine spokesman who said troops told him they'd found AE's photos in a commander's office on Saipan, was told by fellow soldiers they saw her plane on Aslito. |
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| Andrew Bryce, worked with a stevedore who corroborated the story of putting the Electra on a barge to a Japanese ship. |
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| Devine corroborated the story Nabers (below) told of stopping Navy officers from coming in to see the Electra on Aslito. |
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| Doug Bryce went with fellow GI's to Aslito, saw the Electra in a hangar being guarded. He told everyone after the war - was not believed by anyone except his brother (above) who was told by a stevedore he'd transported it. |
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| Nabers decoded the messages, "We have found AE's plane at Aslito field," "We are going to fly AE's plane" and "We are going to destroy AE's plane." He guarded the plane for 24 hours (corroborated by an eyewitness who heard him arguing about it) later went with a fellow Marine to watch them destroy the plane (his account corroborated word for word by another eyewitness.) If this was a False Memory? Why the details? Why the corroboration of details? Can't make something up if everyone else knows the same details. |
So you're flat out wrong about the "7 ways to Sunday comment." Saipan became a training base for the CIA (it's still there, deserted, as well as the satellite equipment.) Saipan is still used by "black ops" (I interviewed a number of islanders about them) and they've been told since the US arrived - "Don't talk to anyone upon penalty of death." Saipan has been used as toxic site for dumping US chemicals from the military for years. Empty drums from PCB's litter the island.
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| Remains of a US tracking station in the hills of Saipan. |
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| All surveys done with permission of Saipanese govt. |
If they knew a story about Earhart (mom washed her clothes, mom took care of her at the hospital, etc) they told me. I didn't tell them anything about what I already knew, or what Goerner knew.
Saipanese refer to the War as beginning in July of 1944. Because that's when it began for them.
Anyways, I could go on - but I recommend,just watch the interviews. Listen to people tell their story. Open up your mind. If you' were even remotely correct - that they were lying or prevaricating or "misremembering" then you'd have to explain where that didn't occur on ANY OTHER ISLAND (ever) or how US Marines could tell the exact same stories other islanders have told consistently Sorry.
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| Public forum in Saipan |
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| Many new testimonials |
I can tell you that when I arrived on Saipan, the US liason pulled me aside and said "I'm friends with the guys from Tighar, and I want you to know that what you're doing is nonsense." I said to him the same I'll say to you - "Well, let's see what people say."
He listened, he attended a public talk we gave with what we found - and he heard from islanders that he knew his whole life, whom he trusted ... and after hearing them tell their story in this meeting (it's on YouTube on EarhartOnSaipan.com) he said "I have to tell you - I was a skeptic. I didn't believe a word prior to this meeting. But I know these people. I know they are honest people. And if they said they saw her, saw her plane, heard and knew what happened to her - I've changed my mind."
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| US liason in Saipan who was a "total skeptic" until hearing the public forum on the topic. |
It's never too late to hear the truth.
Tuesday
Earhart time line based on eyewitness interviews
Just because everyone and their brother has sent me the New York Times article:
Finding Amelia Earhart’s Plane Seemed Impossible. Then Came a Startling Clue. Robert Ballard has found the Titanic and other famous shipwrecks. This month his crew started trying to solve one of the 20th century’s greatest mysteries.
Here's my instant reply:
"Hilarious. Demonstrably false. I'm sorry but Bob B has drunk this brand of koolaid.
Just a matter of time before another face plant in the sand.
(Seven other missions to the same island. Anyone ever think for a second... hey, maybe I've got the wrong island? No? Okay, that should be obvious.)
I've posted photos of the actual brake plate at EarhartOnSaipan.com found by Dick Spink on Mili Atoll verified by a former NTSB investigator who says on camera "beyond a shadow of doubt" it came from the Electra.
(Here are some more details at EarhartMovie)
This will continue through October when they will "find" "evidence" on Nikumaroro where she never was. (I got this tip from Elgen Long who said he's seen their evidence, but is convinced someone will "plant it" for them.) I don't know why he's convinced they would (perhaps it was that "fraud" court case in Minnesota) but it's not my desire to sling mud.
Newsflash: She died in a prison on Saipan where US Marines found the plane July 19th 1944, dug up her grave but only found an arm. Sorry. Mystery solved."
Here's what the evidence shows. And by evidence I actually mean "evidence" instead of theory, conjecture or randomized thinking.
1. She had Fairchild Aerial Reconassaince cameras aboard the Electra. That was reported a number of books, I interviewed the son of the man who installed them. His dad became a policeman after the war. "If my dad said he installed them; he did."
2. Her plan was to "turn left to land in the Gilberts" as revealed by Les Kinney in his research and reported on the History channel program. She did that, but landed elsewhere.
3. But she was already "250 NW of Howland" when she did so. Why? Many reasons, including Paul Mantz claiming she did that often (original test flight, she reported she'd done it in Dakkar as well - she passed Fred a note - "Why are we 250 NW of our target?") Same reason Mantz cited. She did it at least two times, and this might have been the same reason.
4. Two islanders saw her land the Electra on Mili atoll. That is two people who were there, fishing, saw her land. Those people were interviewed years later, their relatives interviewed by school teacher/boat builder Dick Spink. Why would they make that up? And if someone is going to claim they made it up - why haven't any other islanders ever anywhere made up something similar?
5. Other islanders saw her come down - in a South African journalist's book from the 1980's he interviewed the Queen of Mili who corroborated the two fishermen's stories. She brought the plane down - an amazing feat of landing the Eletra on a coral reef, only losing the brake assembly on one side.
6. Les Kinney, Dick Spink, and Mike Harris interviewed islanders who said that "40 Marshallese" were ordered by the Japanese to drag her plane across the atoll to the inlet where a barge could pick it up. I have satellite photos that clearly show the drag marks. Les, Dick and Mike recovered one of the rail cars left behind that assisted in that transport.
7. Dick Spink recovered a number of pieces in his travels, later more piece recovered by Les and Mike as well. The pieces recovered include a brake assembly part. (cited in these pages.) That piece only fits her model of Electra - it was different later, and only two Electras were in existence with that brake part. That was demonstrated on camera by a former NTSB investigator Jim Hayton in Seattle.
8. There are other parts that could only come from the Electra. (found later, displayed on the History Channel show, which I participated in, but then bowed out of).
9. People on ham radios heard her distress calls - included below this post is research from former federal investigator Les Kinney who researched a ham radio operator who wrote down verbatim what Amelia said, including identifying the island she had landed on and describing it (Mili Atoll.)
On to the eyewitnesses:
10. I filmed Andrew Bryce navy vet tell me that during WWII while stationed on nearby Majuro the stevedore working with him told him how he was one of those who dragged the Electra onto a Japanese barge and took it to a ship. (cited below).
11. That ship was the Kyoshu. The plane was tied up and transported to Jaluit where a number of people saw it. Including Bilimon Amaron, a local doctor's assistant who treated Amelia and Fred's wounds. He saw the plane, and heard the Japanese call her "Ameera." He said she spoke to him, but he didn't understand her. I interviewed Bilimon's lifetime business partner (an irishman from Boston) who said "Bilimon was one of the most honest people I know. We all knew his story - and if he said it happened, it did." Les Kinney has dug up the ship's records - it was in Saipan in July of 1937 and later went to Saipan.
12. Other people saw her on Jaluit - including a frenchman whose ship was confiscated and he was put aboard a ship as a stevedore, and dropped a note in a bottle that was recovered on a French shore and examined by US, British Intelligence prior to WWII that claimed he saw AE. (Public records)
13. A Marshallese congressman reports (on camera below) his father took him down to the docks in Jaluit and showed him the plane, the ship, and told him an American female pilot was aboard - who was a spy.
14. Other islanders on Jaluit heard they had captured a spy. Amelia herself is quoted as saying "Imagine, me being a spy" - that's public record. Apparently the Japanese thought so as well.
15. Eyewitnesses saw her brought up the seaplane dock in Garapan, Saipan. I've had two eyewitnesses on camera who saw her - one who was with her brother at 16, the other was a Congressman whose father told him that he refused to bow his head as ordered and saw her and Fred come ashore. (The Electra was taken by ship to Saipan, and AE and FN by seaplane).
16. She was first sent to hospital. I have an interview with the son of a nurse who took care of her and Fred, and swore her son to secrecy - any kind of talk about the Japanese affairs could result in death. Fred was executed (beheaded) reportedly for "insulting a Japanese officer" but perhaps more likely they thought he was the spy with his military background. (Probably thought he was the actual pilot as well.)
Note: Japan considered Saipan "japanese territory" the same way the US considers Hawaii "US territory." They lost 30K men defending it, it was the home of their naval HQ, they knew if the Americans took it they could refuel on their way to bombing Tokyo, etc. Leading up to the war, a number of people were beheaded as "spies" (a British couple), because the Japanese were fortifying the docks for war - something expressly forbidden by the League of Nations in their "mandated islands" agreement. Many stories of people losing boats or their lives if they got too close to an island like Jaluit (which was rebuilding its docks.)
The infamous "photo" from the Jaluit docks that was found by Les Kinney in ONI files (that was erroneously identified as from a "book" - it was from a loose collection of photographs in a string tied binder - where the librarian has told Les that many authors added photos later. The photo is undated, although the portfolio is dated. Either way, the Marshallese govt issued a notice that those docks in the photograph were not built until 1936.)
17. We have new eyewitnesses who saw her incarcerated on Saipan, including two islanders, one on camera, and one who told his son about seeing her in the Garapan prison.
18. Don't look for the records for Garapan prison; they don't appear to exist. (If they did, they'd tell the tale). In a visit to the Japanese Military Library in Tokyo, I was told that even though they have 19 volumes of detailed records of every prison they maintained from Manchuria to Guam, with prisoner lists and details of everyone taken prisoner from 1935-1944, there is only one set of records that is missing; the records from the prison on Saipan. The reason, I was told by the head librarian, is because "all of these files went to the US after the war, and these are the ones they returned to Japan..." Got that? The records somehow disappeared between coming to the US and going back to the military library in Tokyo.
19. However, eyewitnesses saw her in prison, saw her on the back of a truck on Saipan. I have footage of two men in their 80's who were at grade school when a truck stopped for 30 minutes and they could see her - dressed in khakis, blind folded, guarded by Japanese soldiers. As one man put it "It was the first caucasian woman I'd ever seen - dressed like a man and her hands tied behind her. It's not something you forget." She was being transported up the coast road prior to the American invasion when this occurred. (May of 1944). Two other Americans were aboard that truck - also guarded. (Fred had already been executed for being THE spy.) Those two American pilots were both executed - military history - one was shot, the other beheaded - and they were dug up to see if their bodies had been tortured for a war crime tribunal (they were not).
20. Amelia died in prison of dysentery (Multiple accounts). She was buried in a spot apparently next to Fred. However, the other two pilots were also buried; hence the discrepancies of islanders pointing to different graves in 1945 (Tom Devine, Robert Wallack had two different cemeteries with islanders saying that an "American pilot" was buried inside). There were three American pilots - two men and a woman.
21. Her body was moved to another burial site. I know this for a fact, because when the GI's sent to dig her up, they only found an "arm and a partial ribcage" (UPI, Chicago Tribune, 1977).
22. US forces landed in June of 44. Robert Wallack, US Marine says (on camera and in multiple news reports) that he blew open a safe and found her briefcase and passport - kept them for two weeks before being convinced to turn them over. He told me on camera who he turned it over to.
23. US Marines found the Electra July 19th, 1944 in Aslito airfield. I know that's the date because Julious Nabers claimed he decoded the message the day they found it (which was the day they liberated the airfield.) Nabers saw the briefcase as it was brought to his CO. (He repeated verbatim how Wallack describes it). Nabers was ordered by his CO to go with him to see the plane, subsequently his CO (whose uniform is in a glass case at Quantico) ordered Nabers to "guard the plane" for 24 hours.
24. While guarding the plane, a GI (Tom Devine) saw Nabers refuse entry to some brass who said "We know you have Amelia Earhart's airplane, we want to see it." Nabers said "orders is orders." Tom Devine didn't know who that soldier was, but I interviewed Nabers at his home in Tupelo Mississippi. When I heard him say those words "I told those Navy guys that "Orders is orders" I recognized them as what Devine told me he had heard (a few months earlier, and just prior to his passing.)
25. I interviewed Doug Bryce on camera saying that he and some GI's took a jeep from Mt Tapachou down to the airfield to see the Electra. They all knew what it was - the most famous plane on the planet (and had been missing for only 7 years at that time). He said he could clearly see the plane, it's markings, guarded by soldiers some 30 feet away. His description of the hangar matches the hangar that others have pointed to as being where they saw the plane.
26. Both Nabers and Devine on camera describe the day (two or three weeks later) when the plane was towed to the center of the airfield and destroyed. That flaming wreckage was seen by a number of soldiers who reported that in Tom Devine's book on the topic, as well as on camera where they both described the same events. Of seeing it covered in petrol, then destroyed by a P38. (Why? I don't know, and frankly don't care.)
27. I've been to the airfield and know where those planes where "shoved off the runway" by Seabees. I'm told by the former NTSB investigator that it's a matter of "ground pentrating radar" to find whatever is left of the plane.
28. Finally, I've done enough research to feel that I know where her body was moved to. If asked, I'm happy to take a crew and film that excavation.
I interviewed 15 new eyewitnesses to what happened to Amelia. Some of them were veterans of the battle to take Saipan, all of them are now gone. However, their camera footage still exists.
So there you have it.
If you search through these posts, you'll find the same details. No need to dive under water. No need to keep posting "the clue that leads to the clue" stories (unless there's some monetary motivation to keep claiming "we're almost there!")
A photograph of a brake part in a pool of water is not the same as an NTSB investigator actually demonstrating on camera how the brake plate found on Mili actually fits the exact replica of the brake assembly he happens to own. The brake assembly that was unique to her plane. No - not a photograph - but a live, living, real piece of her plane.
Someone asked me "what's the disconnect?" "Why don't they look where she was instead of where she wasn't?" "Why doesn't National Geographic want the truth?" To which I replied:
"It is crazy... in light of me spending two hours on the phone with Nat Geo reporters laying it out piece by piece. I spoke to the editor of National Geographic magazine and she directed me to speak to her two reporters. Some of that information made it into an online piece.
By why the disconnect? No clue. Could be money. (Here is a doc I made prior to getting the 15 new eyewitnesses.)
The people sponsoring this latest have done 7 other expeditions to the same isle, all money raised is spent on these 7 trips (and charges of fraud from one investor in Minnesota).
When we were on Saipan interviewing eyewitnesses, these same guys put in a front page article in the Saipan paper claiming we were creating "false memories" in these islanders for money. I did an interview with the same paper the following day replying that it takes a special kind of racism to claim natives from these islands were making up what they saw.
Over 200 people saw her after she landed the plane on Mili and saw her taken and incarcerated on Saipan. There are zero eyewitnesses on any other island. If locals were inventing the story why not also elsewhere? Guam? Or Nikumaroro?
If people deny that eyewitnesses saw what they saw, who corroborate what others saw, there's only one reason i can think of why they wouldn't be believed.
Either way I know where her plane is buried, know where her body was moved to (pretty good idea) and am thrilled she's back in the news.
Sorry to report that it appears the US govt sent her to her death (mistakes made but as a result of) and has never admitted it.
Truth sets everyone free.
Finding Amelia Earhart’s Plane Seemed Impossible. Then Came a Startling Clue. Robert Ballard has found the Titanic and other famous shipwrecks. This month his crew started trying to solve one of the 20th century’s greatest mysteries.
Here's my instant reply:
"Hilarious. Demonstrably false. I'm sorry but Bob B has drunk this brand of koolaid.
Just a matter of time before another face plant in the sand.
(Seven other missions to the same island. Anyone ever think for a second... hey, maybe I've got the wrong island? No? Okay, that should be obvious.)
I've posted photos of the actual brake plate at EarhartOnSaipan.com found by Dick Spink on Mili Atoll verified by a former NTSB investigator who says on camera "beyond a shadow of doubt" it came from the Electra.
(Here are some more details at EarhartMovie)
This will continue through October when they will "find" "evidence" on Nikumaroro where she never was. (I got this tip from Elgen Long who said he's seen their evidence, but is convinced someone will "plant it" for them.) I don't know why he's convinced they would (perhaps it was that "fraud" court case in Minnesota) but it's not my desire to sling mud.
Newsflash: She died in a prison on Saipan where US Marines found the plane July 19th 1944, dug up her grave but only found an arm. Sorry. Mystery solved."
Here's what the evidence shows. And by evidence I actually mean "evidence" instead of theory, conjecture or randomized thinking.
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| Mike Harris intrepid explorer who worked with Bob B previously - hiring him for an earlier Titanic search. |
1. She had Fairchild Aerial Reconassaince cameras aboard the Electra. That was reported a number of books, I interviewed the son of the man who installed them. His dad became a policeman after the war. "If my dad said he installed them; he did."
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| First cell - eyewitness was in cell between her and Fred |
2. Her plan was to "turn left to land in the Gilberts" as revealed by Les Kinney in his research and reported on the History channel program. She did that, but landed elsewhere.
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| One of her two cells. This was the first. |
3. But she was already "250 NW of Howland" when she did so. Why? Many reasons, including Paul Mantz claiming she did that often (original test flight, she reported she'd done it in Dakkar as well - she passed Fred a note - "Why are we 250 NW of our target?") Same reason Mantz cited. She did it at least two times, and this might have been the same reason.
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| His father saw her come ashore, detailed the same information another eyewitness said. |
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| Saw her on the back of a truck when he was 12. |
5. Other islanders saw her come down - in a South African journalist's book from the 1980's he interviewed the Queen of Mili who corroborated the two fishermen's stories. She brought the plane down - an amazing feat of landing the Eletra on a coral reef, only losing the brake assembly on one side.
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| The old Garapan prison. |
6. Les Kinney, Dick Spink, and Mike Harris interviewed islanders who said that "40 Marshallese" were ordered by the Japanese to drag her plane across the atoll to the inlet where a barge could pick it up. I have satellite photos that clearly show the drag marks. Les, Dick and Mike recovered one of the rail cars left behind that assisted in that transport.
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| Saw her on the back of a Japanese truck in May 44 |
7. Dick Spink recovered a number of pieces in his travels, later more piece recovered by Les and Mike as well. The pieces recovered include a brake assembly part. (cited in these pages.) That piece only fits her model of Electra - it was different later, and only two Electras were in existence with that brake part. That was demonstrated on camera by a former NTSB investigator Jim Hayton in Seattle.
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| Did some excavation during this trip. |
8. There are other parts that could only come from the Electra. (found later, displayed on the History Channel show, which I participated in, but then bowed out of).
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| His mother treated her wounds in Saipan hospital |
9. People on ham radios heard her distress calls - included below this post is research from former federal investigator Les Kinney who researched a ham radio operator who wrote down verbatim what Amelia said, including identifying the island she had landed on and describing it (Mili Atoll.)
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| Former US Marine Major Rick Spooner said he heard others found a book of photos of Amelia on Saipan and his fellow Marines claimed they saw the Electra at Aslito. |
On to the eyewitnesses:
10. I filmed Andrew Bryce navy vet tell me that during WWII while stationed on nearby Majuro the stevedore working with him told him how he was one of those who dragged the Electra onto a Japanese barge and took it to a ship. (cited below).
11. That ship was the Kyoshu. The plane was tied up and transported to Jaluit where a number of people saw it. Including Bilimon Amaron, a local doctor's assistant who treated Amelia and Fred's wounds. He saw the plane, and heard the Japanese call her "Ameera." He said she spoke to him, but he didn't understand her. I interviewed Bilimon's lifetime business partner (an irishman from Boston) who said "Bilimon was one of the most honest people I know. We all knew his story - and if he said it happened, it did." Les Kinney has dug up the ship's records - it was in Saipan in July of 1937 and later went to Saipan.
12. Other people saw her on Jaluit - including a frenchman whose ship was confiscated and he was put aboard a ship as a stevedore, and dropped a note in a bottle that was recovered on a French shore and examined by US, British Intelligence prior to WWII that claimed he saw AE. (Public records)
13. A Marshallese congressman reports (on camera below) his father took him down to the docks in Jaluit and showed him the plane, the ship, and told him an American female pilot was aboard - who was a spy.
14. Other islanders on Jaluit heard they had captured a spy. Amelia herself is quoted as saying "Imagine, me being a spy" - that's public record. Apparently the Japanese thought so as well.
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| Fred Goerner interviewed the two GIS who dug up her body, and the inital woman from Saipan who saw her come ashore. |
15. Eyewitnesses saw her brought up the seaplane dock in Garapan, Saipan. I've had two eyewitnesses on camera who saw her - one who was with her brother at 16, the other was a Congressman whose father told him that he refused to bow his head as ordered and saw her and Fred come ashore. (The Electra was taken by ship to Saipan, and AE and FN by seaplane).
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| This is the same women, who reiterated what she saw and it matches what the other eyewitness saw. |
16. She was first sent to hospital. I have an interview with the son of a nurse who took care of her and Fred, and swore her son to secrecy - any kind of talk about the Japanese affairs could result in death. Fred was executed (beheaded) reportedly for "insulting a Japanese officer" but perhaps more likely they thought he was the spy with his military background. (Probably thought he was the actual pilot as well.)
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| Devine said he overheard Nabers talk about the Electra, and later saw the Electra destroyed. |
Note: Japan considered Saipan "japanese territory" the same way the US considers Hawaii "US territory." They lost 30K men defending it, it was the home of their naval HQ, they knew if the Americans took it they could refuel on their way to bombing Tokyo, etc. Leading up to the war, a number of people were beheaded as "spies" (a British couple), because the Japanese were fortifying the docks for war - something expressly forbidden by the League of Nations in their "mandated islands" agreement. Many stories of people losing boats or their lives if they got too close to an island like Jaluit (which was rebuilding its docks.)
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| Doug Bryce saw the Electra in a hangar, same hangar others claimed to see it. |
The infamous "photo" from the Jaluit docks that was found by Les Kinney in ONI files (that was erroneously identified as from a "book" - it was from a loose collection of photographs in a string tied binder - where the librarian has told Les that many authors added photos later. The photo is undated, although the portfolio is dated. Either way, the Marshallese govt issued a notice that those docks in the photograph were not built until 1936.)
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| Brother Andrew Bryce met the stevedore who moved the Electra to a Japanese barge to a ship. Learned his brother had seen the Electra after the war at a family picnic. |
17. We have new eyewitnesses who saw her incarcerated on Saipan, including two islanders, one on camera, and one who told his son about seeing her in the Garapan prison.
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| Marine who decoded the messages about the Electra ("We have found Amelia Earhart's plane Aslito airfield." "We are going to fly Earhart plane at Aslito." (also seen by other GI's) "We are going to destroy the Electra at Aslito." He guarded the plane, his commanding officer was given her briefcase, and he and another GI went down and witnessed the destruction of the Electra. |
18. Don't look for the records for Garapan prison; they don't appear to exist. (If they did, they'd tell the tale). In a visit to the Japanese Military Library in Tokyo, I was told that even though they have 19 volumes of detailed records of every prison they maintained from Manchuria to Guam, with prisoner lists and details of everyone taken prisoner from 1935-1944, there is only one set of records that is missing; the records from the prison on Saipan. The reason, I was told by the head librarian, is because "all of these files went to the US after the war, and these are the ones they returned to Japan..." Got that? The records somehow disappeared between coming to the US and going back to the military library in Tokyo.
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| Found her briefcase, passport, kept them for two weeks. Interviewed by Connie Chung and others. |
19. However, eyewitnesses saw her in prison, saw her on the back of a truck on Saipan. I have footage of two men in their 80's who were at grade school when a truck stopped for 30 minutes and they could see her - dressed in khakis, blind folded, guarded by Japanese soldiers. As one man put it "It was the first caucasian woman I'd ever seen - dressed like a man and her hands tied behind her. It's not something you forget." She was being transported up the coast road prior to the American invasion when this occurred. (May of 1944). Two other Americans were aboard that truck - also guarded. (Fred had already been executed for being THE spy.) Those two American pilots were both executed - military history - one was shot, the other beheaded - and they were dug up to see if their bodies had been tortured for a war crime tribunal (they were not).
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| The actual brake plate from the Electra found by Dick Spink on Mili atoll among other pieces. |
20. Amelia died in prison of dysentery (Multiple accounts). She was buried in a spot apparently next to Fred. However, the other two pilots were also buried; hence the discrepancies of islanders pointing to different graves in 1945 (Tom Devine, Robert Wallack had two different cemeteries with islanders saying that an "American pilot" was buried inside). There were three American pilots - two men and a woman.
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| Manual from identical Electra, showing the dust shield found. |
21. Her body was moved to another burial site. I know this for a fact, because when the GI's sent to dig her up, they only found an "arm and a partial ribcage" (UPI, Chicago Tribune, 1977).
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| These mini rail cars can be found on Saipan, used for transport of sugar cane. There is no cane on Mili atoll, yet these are still there; used for some reason to transport the Electra. |
22. US forces landed in June of 44. Robert Wallack, US Marine says (on camera and in multiple news reports) that he blew open a safe and found her briefcase and passport - kept them for two weeks before being convinced to turn them over. He told me on camera who he turned it over to.
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| Jim Hayton, former NTSB investigator demonstrating on camera how the dust shield fit over the Electra's brake assembly. He owns a brake assembly from the exact model. (The later models were larger.) |
23. US Marines found the Electra July 19th, 1944 in Aslito airfield. I know that's the date because Julious Nabers claimed he decoded the message the day they found it (which was the day they liberated the airfield.) Nabers saw the briefcase as it was brought to his CO. (He repeated verbatim how Wallack describes it). Nabers was ordered by his CO to go with him to see the plane, subsequently his CO (whose uniform is in a glass case at Quantico) ordered Nabers to "guard the plane" for 24 hours.
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| Dick Spink, Jim Hayton, me, Mike Harris in Dick Spink's living room looking at pieces of history. |
24. While guarding the plane, a GI (Tom Devine) saw Nabers refuse entry to some brass who said "We know you have Amelia Earhart's airplane, we want to see it." Nabers said "orders is orders." Tom Devine didn't know who that soldier was, but I interviewed Nabers at his home in Tupelo Mississippi. When I heard him say those words "I told those Navy guys that "Orders is orders" I recognized them as what Devine told me he had heard (a few months earlier, and just prior to his passing.)
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| Lives on Saipan, came in because his flight instructor had served in WWII with a Japanese man who claimed to have been a guard in Garapan and had guarded Amelia. |
25. I interviewed Doug Bryce on camera saying that he and some GI's took a jeep from Mt Tapachou down to the airfield to see the Electra. They all knew what it was - the most famous plane on the planet (and had been missing for only 7 years at that time). He said he could clearly see the plane, it's markings, guarded by soldiers some 30 feet away. His description of the hangar matches the hangar that others have pointed to as being where they saw the plane.
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26. Both Nabers and Devine on camera describe the day (two or three weeks later) when the plane was towed to the center of the airfield and destroyed. That flaming wreckage was seen by a number of soldiers who reported that in Tom Devine's book on the topic, as well as on camera where they both described the same events. Of seeing it covered in petrol, then destroyed by a P38. (Why? I don't know, and frankly don't care.)
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| Briefcase matches both Robert Wallack and Julious Nabers descriptions. |
27. I've been to the airfield and know where those planes where "shoved off the runway" by Seabees. I'm told by the former NTSB investigator that it's a matter of "ground pentrating radar" to find whatever is left of the plane.
28. Finally, I've done enough research to feel that I know where her body was moved to. If asked, I'm happy to take a crew and film that excavation.
I interviewed 15 new eyewitnesses to what happened to Amelia. Some of them were veterans of the battle to take Saipan, all of them are now gone. However, their camera footage still exists.
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| Oliver Knaggs, South African reporter, interviewed numerous Marshallese who saw her land the Electra. |
So there you have it.
If you search through these posts, you'll find the same details. No need to dive under water. No need to keep posting "the clue that leads to the clue" stories (unless there's some monetary motivation to keep claiming "we're almost there!")
A photograph of a brake part in a pool of water is not the same as an NTSB investigator actually demonstrating on camera how the brake plate found on Mili actually fits the exact replica of the brake assembly he happens to own. The brake assembly that was unique to her plane. No - not a photograph - but a live, living, real piece of her plane.
Someone asked me "what's the disconnect?" "Why don't they look where she was instead of where she wasn't?" "Why doesn't National Geographic want the truth?" To which I replied:
"It is crazy... in light of me spending two hours on the phone with Nat Geo reporters laying it out piece by piece. I spoke to the editor of National Geographic magazine and she directed me to speak to her two reporters. Some of that information made it into an online piece.
By why the disconnect? No clue. Could be money. (Here is a doc I made prior to getting the 15 new eyewitnesses.)
The people sponsoring this latest have done 7 other expeditions to the same isle, all money raised is spent on these 7 trips (and charges of fraud from one investor in Minnesota).
When we were on Saipan interviewing eyewitnesses, these same guys put in a front page article in the Saipan paper claiming we were creating "false memories" in these islanders for money. I did an interview with the same paper the following day replying that it takes a special kind of racism to claim natives from these islands were making up what they saw.
Over 200 people saw her after she landed the plane on Mili and saw her taken and incarcerated on Saipan. There are zero eyewitnesses on any other island. If locals were inventing the story why not also elsewhere? Guam? Or Nikumaroro?
If people deny that eyewitnesses saw what they saw, who corroborate what others saw, there's only one reason i can think of why they wouldn't be believed.
Either way I know where her plane is buried, know where her body was moved to (pretty good idea) and am thrilled she's back in the news.
Sorry to report that it appears the US govt sent her to her death (mistakes made but as a result of) and has never admitted it.
Truth sets everyone free.
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