Eyewitnesses who saw Amelia Earhart on Saipan

In light of the History Channel show here are some eyewitness reports from folks who saw Amelia Earhart on Saipan after she landed her plane at Mili atoll. (There's an interesting "new" evidence below)

(Full disclosure - I was asked to participate in the History Channel show. They filmed me for the sizzle reel that they used to sell the show to History Channel. Ultimately, based on my 25 years of research, having worked on all the films about Earhart (both Diane Keaton's and Hilary Swank) and my 30 hours of footage and 5k photographs, I decided to hang onto my research, as we're still hoping to put this together in film form.  That being said, I'm friends with Les Kinney and Dick Spink, have interviewed them, have worked and shared notes with them, and what they have to say about AE's journey is accurate and based upon decades of research. 

(This show is based on their research, Les and Dick worked independently of me and Mike Harris, but a few  years back, we all got together and shared notes. Les told me about his photograph, and I've been waiting all this time to see it. And it's mind blowing.)

Here's a short time line of what the research shows based on eyewitness interviews collected over decades. Mike Harris filmed some of these interviews in the 1980's, we filmed more in Saipan recently, and the US Marines I collected over the years.

1. She landed the Electra on Endriken isle in Mili.  Dick Spink found pieces of her plane on a number of occasions - a former NTSB investigator (Jim Hayton out of Seattle) confirmed "beyond a shadow of doubt" that they could only come from her Electra.

2. She was picked up by the Japanese.  A number of islanders saw her plane land (they were fishing the shallow reefs) and the Queen of Mili was filmed and interviewed by a South African journalist in the 1980's.  Many people saw her come down.  On a recent trip to Mili, an island elder recalled that the Japanese had "ordered" 40 islanders to help drag the Electra off the atoll.

3. The Electra was put aboard a Japanese barge and taken to Majuro first. I got that info from a Navy veteran stationed on Majuro who heard it from a stevedore he worked with. He said they'd transported it to the Koshu Maru.  (Note, in the photo of the ship, there's a barge attached to the Koshu. I never thought there would be a photo of that - but there it is.)

3. Google Earth photos show (from a decade ago) that the drag marks of some large object could be seen from space.  There was Japanese rail equipment found on the island and recovered by Spink, Kinney, Mike Harris and others on a recent trip.  Same gauge equipment Japanese used to haul cane in Saipan.

4. She was transported with Fred and the Electra to Jaluit (where this picture is taken. If you watch the footage you'll see eyewitnesses who boarded the ship and saw her there.)


click to view - about 30 minutes - the links at the end no longer apply

5. She was taken to Saipan - I interviewed Ms. Akiyama a few years back, and this show on Sunday interviews her as well. She's the original source for Fred Goerner's book - and her story has not changed.  I interviewed other islanders (also in this footage) who corroborate her story - one congressman says his father told him the same story of Fred and Amelia being brought ashore.

6. She was held at first in the hospital (interview above) then the military HQ. Fred, according to reports, was beaten, tortured and killed for being a spy. (beheaded)  Amelia was moved from her initial cell which she was a few doors down from Fred (in the footage) to a larger cell closer to the commandant's view.

7. She spent the rest of her days in this cell. She was occasionally allowed to meet with islanders (see "Eye on LA" report in the 1990's for those reports with Chuck Henry) but for the most part lived in a small cell (that is still there, and has a tree growing inside of it.)

8. She died of dysentery.  She was held as a "playing card" for the Japanese to use against the US - but never got around to it. The US invaded June 1944.

9. The Electra was found in a hangar on Aslito field, Saipan June 19th. The man who decoded the messages, guarded the plane, numerous eyewitnesses are cited above in the footage and to the side of this page. Her briefcase was found, dry as a bone,her passport etc, all turned over to the same commander Clarence R. Wallace.  Corroborated reports are cited in the footage.

10. Her body was dug up by two GI's Hanson and Burkes, as reported in Goerner's book "Searing for Amelia" in 1963. However, subsequent evidence points to the fact these two "found an arm and a partial ribcage." Her skull and other bones have not been found or recovered.

11. The Electra, after being guarded for 4-5 weeks in the hangar, was towed to the south end of the field, covered with gas and burned (as reported above.)  It was shoved off the runway into a pit with other planes.  We had permits to excavate that pit a couple of years back, but ran out of the money required to do so. However, I know where the pit is.  According to the NTSB investigator, he could identify the frame of her plane from a field X ray.  That remains to be done.

12. Her briefcase and arm were turned over to the US military.  The next island in the war was Okinawa, and as Robert Wallack points out - "a number of ships were sunk by the Japanese."  Perhaps her arm, rib cage and briefcase went to the bottom of the sea. However, recently, I heard from a reliable source that the briefcase is in the hands of a private collector related to the Earhart family.  That too remains to be seen.


Over 200 people claim to have seen her, nursed her, fed her, washed her clothes when she got to Saipan.  Some of those people are featured in the footage above.  This footage has been posted for years now, and despite being invited to be on the History Channel, I felt that if I did not work on that show, and retained all the rights to my research, I might find another way to tell her story.  And I'm still doing that.

This is not based on a theory, belief or philosophy. These reports are based on consistent eyewitness reports, that have been cross referenced - if one person said one incredible thing (she was shot, she was beheaded) I put it aside to hear corroborating evidence.  When two people said the same thing ("I saw her in the back of a truck in May 1944 being transported by soldiers. I had never seen a white woman in my life, and it's not the kind of thing you forget, even at age 12 - a woman dressed like a man with her arms bound and a blindfold.  She was parked in from of me for 30 minutes.  My brother was next to me." (cited in the footage above.)

Ultimately, people can argue about what people saw or think they saw. Certainly the memory does tricks over the years - but when over 200 people say relatively the same thing, it deserves to be examined. And further - if what they're saying is true - then the US owes her a debt. She was the first victim of World War II and has never been honored for it.

(Sorry that this info disturbs some people - but if you take a look at my other work ("Flipside" "It's a Wonderful Afterlife" and "Hacking the Afterlife" - in which I reveal everything I've learned about Amelia's journey) I go into detail as to why that might not be the case.  

In "Hacking the Afterlife" I submitted the same 20 questions to mediums who claimed they could communicate with AE.  In all three cases, I got the same answers, as well as "new information" that no one knows, that I have confirmed, that could only come from someone who was Amelia, or knew her extremely well.)

Regarding the latest hullabaloo about "the 1937 photo in a 1935 book." Some observations:

There are many things unusual about the photo cited in the History Channel report from the National Archives, that was "found in a book dated 1935 by a blogger in Japan."

It's actually not a book by the way. It's from a loose leaf portfolio of pictures. (If you follow the link to the cover, you'll see what I mean.) That portfolio has a separate copyright page from 1935. The photograph on the docks is not dated. Nor are any photos in the book.

Hand tied portfolio of photos not bound. 

Yet, the exact same photo is in a classified Office of Naval Intelligence file. (Full disclosure, my grandfather Edward A Hayes, National Commander of the American Legion, served as Assistant Sect of the Navy Frank Knox, and in the Office of Naval Intelligence from 1940-1944) How did the exact same photo get into a classified file (if you go to National archives, they have it on their main page.)  More importantly, why?

How'd ONI get the actual negative? It's the exact same photo. Why was it classified? (From my research, it was because they had so few pics of the region of actual docks.) 

There was an issue of docks that precipitated the war - as the Japanese claimed in their permission to mandate the islands (prior to leaving the League of Nations in 36) they would not fortify their docks for war. (They did, and killed people who reported that detail.)   

Photo from the net "Jaluit harbor in the 1930's"
Before they'd been fortified by the Japanese.
Note the pier included in the above foto. Fortified.

If the two westerners in the photograph are not Amelia and Fred -  what male/female westerners were traveling in Jaluit in 35? Someone somewhere must recognize Uncle Pete and Aunt Betty. Jaluit was an odd destination. It was Japanese territory. Completely off limits. (So - this letter came to me today - which I'd seen before, but never transcribe... a French explorer whose ship was confiscated off Mili in 37, who claims to have seen AE in custody). 

But there is proof they were on the docks, as depicted in the photograph in this letter.

(Oliver Knagg's book Chapter 11 AE: Her Last Flight 1983
has a slightly different (inaccurate) translation, but this is the original doc in English)

The message reads: "January 7th, 1939. Report of Amelia Earhart as Prisoner of the Marshall Islands." 

"Mr. Happenot, the chief of the French Foreign office, allowed the writer to read some papers found in a bottle washed ashore near Bordeaux. This communication... will be delivered to the American embassy here." 

He then describes a fellow walking on the beach along the Atlantic "On 30th October (1938), a Mr. Barret, aged 37" found a bottle that was half pint sized, with wax on over the top.  There was a sample of chestnut brown hair inside, with a note that said "May God guide this bottle, I confine my life and friends to it." 

Then in French, here in English;  "Have been prisoner at Jaliut (Marshalls) by the Japanese in a prison at Jaliut. In the prison there I have seen: Amelia Earhart (aviatrix) and in another cell her mechanic (a man), as well as several other European prisoners held on charges of alleged spying of the gigantic fortifications erected on the atoll."

(A key detail, as they were forbidden by the League of Nations to build fortifications for war, in their being allowed to mandate the islands. The photo above is of a fortified docks - as in ready for war.) 

"Earhart and her companion were picked up by Japanese hydroplane and will serve as hostages, say Japanese.  I was a prisoner because I disembarked on Mila (sic) Atoll.  My yacht 'VEVEO' sunk, crew (3 Maoris) killed, my yacht (85 tons, sailing ship) was equipped with radio." (Another detail - she was transported from Jaluit to Saipan in a seaplane, as has been reported elsewhere)."

On the other side of the note he continues: "Having been kept a long time at Jaluit as prisoner, I was forcibly enrolled as stokehold hand, (coal shovel) simply fed, on board 'Nippon Noa?' (his question mark) bound for Europe.  Will try to escape when ship near to coast.  Carry this message to Gendarmerie immediately in order so that we can be freed. " 

"This message is to be thrown overboard probably near Santander (Spain), and should arrive in Brittany or at the latest, October, 1938. (Wow. He had that correct.) This is message No. 6. To have a good chance of freeing Miss Earhart and her companion, as well as other prisoners, police should arrive incognito at Jaluit I shall be with (name indecipherable in text above, in book it's "Jo....eux") and if I succeed in escaping.... because if the Japanese are asked to free the prisoners they will say that they have none are detained at Jaliut. One must be tricky."

"The hair (enclosed in the bottle - where did he get that? from her? a brush? or asked her for it?) is Miss Earhart's and will prove the veracity of this story and that I have seen Amelia Earhart (-) supposedly dead. This bottle will serve as a float for a second bottle containing some objects of Miss Earhart. (!!!)"    
"I am writing on my knees because I have only a little paper,  some left over when police took finger prints." (Finger prints? On Jaluit? Cool. Let's find 'em.) Bottom of the page reveals: Letter was stamped at the bottom with initials V. B. 2


A good friend of mine forwarded this to me. There are other verifiable details to this letter. The explorer Eric de Bisschop, who was also detained in Jaluit in July of 1937, says that when he told the Japanese authorities he had been sailing near "Mila Atoll" (sic) they became suspicious and searched his boat (the Fou Po) for spying equipment. Later Bisschop was asked by the French military if he had seen Earhart while he was detained in Jaluit. While he said he had not seen her, he confirmed that he'd heard of others who had been detained.

But beyond that - the details of this letter confirm a number of details that are in the photo, and in the eyewitness reports .

First it's really an odd artifact. (It was found in a bottle on the beach in Brittany)  This explorer claims he was taken prisoner in Jaluit in 1937, where he saw Earhart and "her mechanic" in custody. (Sorry Fred, we can't all get credit even in death).  

But he notably reports he was arrested for spying on the "fortifications of the atoll" (getting ready for WWII in 1937) and that she was "taken away in a seaplane."

Fred Goerner's book in 1963 spoke to a number of people who saw a "silver plane" fly overhead just prior to her arrival on the island. (In the footage above, Ms. Blanco Akiyama, and a Congressman from the Marianas whose father saw the same event).

The docks where Ms. Blanco saw AE was at the seaplane dock in Garapan (as noted in the History Channel episode)  A small but notable confirmation that this fellow is accurate. (Other than the fact that he was a famous explorer and later lauded for his exploits. Not anonymous. A real human person who spoke about what happened to him later in life.)  

Back to the photograph of Jaluit: two British citizens were executed in the Marshalls for spying in 1936. It's not exactly a place you stop off during your trip. A male and female dressed in men's clothing, black pants - not exactly the outfit worn by sailors either. 

People have claimed the ship is not the Koshu Maru. Is it the Koshu? The show claims it is - but so does the  portfolio pic. (In the caption it's called "Koshu.") So the ship is identified as the Koshu. What's it doing with a 38 foot long plane on a barge?

If you explore the footage link above, (eyewitnesses) you'll see Andrew Bryce, Navy Vet talk about the stevedore in Majuro who told him he moved the Electra by Japanese barge to Jaluit and a Japanese ship parked there. You'll see Bilimon Amaron talk about boarding the ship. You'll see his business partner defend his reputation.

The match of Fred's nose was pretty clear as per the show.  A match of her shoulders too. If it's not them who are these mysterious westerners out for a cruise in Jaluit in any year prior to World War II? 


So this photograph is not dated - it's in a portfolio, not a book, and the identical photo is in a classified file in the Office of Naval Intelligence. How'd it get into Office of Naval Intelligence? 

(I love that Tighar has found a shoe, found turtle bones, demonstrated a photo of a plane part in the ocean, found a body that was identified as male but is now female - (9 expeditions?) and has now got cadaver dogs searching the island. When I spoke to the editor of National Geographic in an hour long interview, I was told "When people come to us with a new Earhart story, we're told to run in the opposite direction."  I guess not anymore.)

Nat Geo did report on Les Kinney and Dick Spinks' (with Mike Harris, Jim Hayton) trip to Mili to find more plane parts (sponsored by Alcoa).  And now they're allowing Tighar to use their name (and her legacy with National Geographic) to continue this story. 

Yet, in a single day, because a blogger (who has posted on Tighar) says that the photo is from a 1935 book (it's not from a book! It's from a hand tied portfolio! none of the pix are dated!) everyone rushes to "debunk" "discredit" or the millions of other things that people say when faced with another narrative. 

Ignoring all of the people who corroborate what's in the photograph.

I suggest following up these questions. Follow up the eyewitness reports I've posted above. And ignore the hysteria about every new detail that comes across the transom. There will be future reports of "cadaver dog finds." (In my interview with Elgen Long  for the film "Amelia," he predicted they eventually run out of options and "discover" a plane part (one he says is tied to AE that he's already examined) I recently heard a "nasty rumor" that "someone" may "plant an artifact" of Fred Noonan's (size of a fingernail) to indicate/prove the search has been on the right island all along. It hasn't happened yet, it's a nasty unfounded rumor, but if or when it ever does, you'll have heard it here first. (7-14-17) It was Elgen who first alerted me to the concept "something could be planted" to justify the expense of these searches.  His words, not mine.)

It's taken 80 years to turn this ship in the correct direction, it's going to take more to get there.  (More eyewitnesses in the footage posted above.)

Addendum:

Some photographs that corroborate the argument made above.

1. Jaluit Harbor in 1906.  

SS. Germania 1906 Jaluit

Wooden Dock in Jaluit 1906. 

2. Jaluit Harbor in the 1930's when Japan was still in the League of Nations.

Photo caption "Jaluit Harbor in the 1930's. 

3. Jaluit harbor after it's had "fortifications" done - i.e. building a dock and a port for battle ships.  Strictly forbidden by the League of Nations which Japan left in 1936.

New dock - note the metal posts for tying up large ships. 
It's not the people that make this classified - it's the dock.

Closer. With the Koshu (as identified above) with a plane on a barge.

Just noticed this.
Is that fellow in the middle with the long hair, 
the French Sailor who penned the note? "VB2"

4. Jaluit Harbor in 1947.  Same dock from a different angle.

Jaluit Dock looking towards shore 1947

Jaluit Dock - 1947

5. The reason the photo was in the office of Naval Intelligence was because it proved that Japan was fortifying the docks illegally to prepare for war.

Note they're standing on the newly fortified docks. Office of Naval Intelligence

6. The above letter states the same details - fortifications for war, and seeing Amelia and "her mechanic" Fred on the same dock in 1937.

Which makes me wonder. Is the Frenchman who wrote this letter
in the photo above?

Wouldn't that be amazing?  All three of them in one photo.

Boom! Les Kinney produces solid evidence of Earhart in captivity

Life long Earhart researcher, former Federal investigator Les Kinney, has shared some of his research with History Channel.  A photograph of Amelia Earhart in custody.

Les has been working on this case for a long time. A dogged investigator he's turned up a number of items that will be revealed in the History Channel show. But finally, after all these years, some solid photographic evidence of Amelia in custody.

Mike Harris was in the Marshall's in the 1980's when he began filming locals who claimed to have seen Earhart.  Mike and I went to Saipan to interview 15 new eyewitnesses, and I've gathered 6 US veterans who claim to have found her plane on Aslito airfield in Saipan.  Three are US Marines, one guarded her plane, one found her briefcase, one decoded the messages when the US military found her plane.

Finally, at long last some photographic evidence of Amelia in custody.   There's more out there, it's just a matter of determination to find it. Les has more documents that prove what happened to her, Dick Spink found pieces of the Electra on Mili Atoll where she brought the plane in for a landing.

More to come, but I wanted to share this amazing photo, and the NBC expert who has verified it.

From NBC: 

"A newly discovered photograph suggests legendary aviator Amelia Earhart, who vanished 80 years ago on a round-the-world flight, survived a crash-landing in the Marshall Islands.

The photo, found in a long-forgotten file in the National Archives, shows a woman who resembles Earhart and a man who appears to be her navigator, Fred Noonan, on a dock. The discovery is featured in a new History channel special, "Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence," that airs Sunday.

Independent analysts told History the photo appears legitimate and undoctored. Shawn Henry, former executive assistant director for the FBI and an NBC News analyst, has studied the photo and feels confident it shows the famed pilot and her navigator.

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"When you pull out, and when you see the analysis that's been done, I think it leaves no doubt to the viewers that that's Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan," Henry told NBC News.

Earhart was last heard from on July 2, 1937, as she attempted to become the first woman pilot to circumnavigate the globe. She was declared dead two years later after the U.S. concluded she had crashed somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, and her remains were never found.

Amelia Earhart sits in her Electra plane cabin at the airport in Burbank, California, on May 20, 1937. Albert Bresnik / Paragon Agency via AP

But investigators believe they have found evidence Earhart and Noonan were blown off course but survived the ordeal. The investigative team behind the History special believes the photo may have been taken by someone who was spying for the U.S. on Japanese military activity in the Pacific.

Les Kinney, a retired government investigator who has spent 15 years looking for Earhart clues, said the photo "clearly indicates that Earhart was captured by the Japanese."

Japanese authorities told NBC News they have no record of Earhart being in their custody.

Related: The Search Is Still On for Amelia Earhart 80 Years After She Disappeared

The photo, marked "Jaluit Atoll" and believed to have been taken in 1937, shows a short-haired woman — potentially Earhart — on a dock with her back to the camera. (She's wearing pants, something for which Earhart was known.) She sits near a standing man who looks like Noonan — down to the hairline.

"The hairline is the most distinctive characteristic," said Ken Gibson, a facial recognition expert who studied the image. "It's a very sharp receding hairline. The nose is very prominent."

Gibson added: "It's my feeling that this is very convincing evidence that this is probably Noonan."

A newly discovered photo shows a woman who resembles Amelia Earhart and a man who appears to be her navigator, Fred Noonan. National Archives

The photo shows a Japanese ship, Koshu, towing a barge with something that appears to be 38-feet-long — the same length as Earhart's plane.

For decades, locals have claimed they saw Earhart's plane crash before she and Noonan were taken away. Native schoolkids insisted they saw Earhart in captivity. The story was even documented in postage stamps issued in the 1980s.

"We believe that the Koshu took her to Saipan [in the Mariana Islands], and that she died there under the custody of the Japanese," said Gary Tarpinian, the executive producer of the History special.

"We don't know how she died," Tarpinian said. "We don't know when."

It is not clear if the U.S. government knew who was in the photo. If it was taken by a spy, the U.S. may not have wanted to compromise that person by revealing the image. 

July 9th, History Channel - tune in!

Finally, someone is going to open the door to this tale...



My pals Les Kinney and Dick Spink were brought onto this show to share their research and evidence.  I can see that the show has followed some of my path - including an interview with Ms. Akimaya Blanco, whom I interviewed four years ago.  She's a sweetheart, and deserves to have her story told on a grander scale.

Honestly, they asked for my participation, but they didn't ask for Mike Harris' participation - and Mike is a good pal, and deserves as much credit as anyone for digging up her story.

But credit aside - this isn't about the time that Mike Harris put in - or the time that I've put in - it's about telling the story about what really happened to Amelia Earhart.
 

Ms. Blanco when I interviewed her.

I'm still holding onto the evidence that I have about her - that is beyond what this show will report - including the US Marines who saw her plane and watched as it was destroyed by the US Military... Either way, there's more to the story - what happened to her body and where the wreckage of her plane is located. (Both mysteries I have answers to.)
 

With Dick Spink, Jim Hayton and Mike Harris in Seattle.

Here's to opening the door on the real story!
 

One of the cells she was incarcerated in Saipan

Stay tuned.

Eyewitnesses who claim they saw Amelia Earhart on Saipan

This is an edited clip of the footage that Mike Harris and I shot while on Saipan. 

 Included are new eyewitnesses who claim they or their relatives saw Amelia Earhart after she disappeared in 1937. There's more info and details below but this clip dovetails with the recent reports of finding pieces of her plane on Mili Atoll. Dick Spink and Les Kinney (Dick found the new pieces on Mili, Les is an investigator with nearly 30 years of investigative experience) are on their way to Saipan to survey where her body was found by US Forces. We wish them the best of luck.

 People may not like what these folks are saying - that Amelia was arrested and incarcerated in prison, that she was buried on Saipan, her body recovered, her plane and briefcase found, her plane was destroyed and buried by US forces - but important to remember these are eyewitness accounts. From US Marines, US war veterans, and people on Saipan who are amused by people who show up without any knowledge of the island.

 Saipan was claimed by Germany, sold to Spain, then became Japanese, and was part of Japan territory until 1944. (It was then run by the CIA until 1963, and is now US territory, so when you land at the airport it says "Welcome to the US." No different than Puerto Rico. So when her plane was picked up from Mili Atoll by the Japanese in 1937, according to these reports, it was taken to Japanese territory, where their Naval Headquarters was located. (Much the way Pearl Harbor was considered US territory, even though it was yet to be a state in 1941.)

 According to these eyewitness reports, Amelia was incarcerated on Japanese territory, in a Japanese cell by the Japanese authorities. Her briefcase was found by US Marine Robert Wallack, her plane was found on Aslito airfield by US Marines in June of 44, and US Marine E. Julious Nabers under command of Lewis Wallace, decoded the messages that it had been found and was ordered to guard it. He says he guarded the plane on Aslito for 24 hours then decoded messages the military was going to fly it, and eventually destroy it. Other veterans (in this footage) saw it, and eventually watched as it was destroyed under orders from the Navy Dept. The plane was buried on the runway, which is now an international airfield. However, we have information as to where that location is, and have gotten the permits to survey the airfield. We plan on returning to do just that.

 I've been involved in this search since 1988, Mike Harris has been involved since the early 80's, and Les Kinney since around that time as well.  On behalf of Dick Spink, forensic aviation expert Jim Hayton, Les Kinney and Mike Harris (and the others who have contributed and participated) -  I'd say we all have one goal in common - to reveal whatever the truth may be about what happened to her.  We may not all appear in the various news articles regarding the latest "find" or "discovery" but we've all contributed to these revelations in our own personal way. Some of us have more "shoe leather in the game" than others, but at the end of the day it's not about who we are; it's about who she was.

Stay tuned for more details.

Nice article about Doug Westfall's book on AE

Here's a nice article about Douglas Westfall's book that focuses on AE's final journey.

Article link here:

Albert Bresnik/AFP

Agence France-Presse

June 10, 2015 

New Amelia Earhart footage surfaces

When Amelia Earhart took off from southern California in 1937 on her ill-fated around-the-globe flight, a photographer documented the journey’s start. But the world was unaware, until this week, that a home movie was also made as she prepared for her expedition.
A publisher has released a grainy but well-preserved 3.5-minute film, which it says depicts the legendary aviatrix climbing aboard her plane the day before she departed on a trip that led to her disappearance over the Pacific six weeks later.

The clip does little to solve one of aviation’s enduring riddles in which Earhart, 39, and navigator Fred Noonan, 44, vanished as they were flying from Papua New Guinea to Howland Island on July 2, 1937, near the end of her quest to become the first woman to circumnavigate the globe by plane.

But it provides new images of the pilot, shortly before a disappearance that has entranced aviators and historians for decades. The film is believed to have been shot by John Bresnik, who tagged along with his brother Albert Bresnik, Earhart’s official photographer, to the Burbank airfield, where Earhart inspected her Lockheed 10 Electra.

Author and historian Douglas Westfall of The Paragon Agency, which is publishing the film clip Amelia Earhart’s Last Photo Shoot along with a book of the same name, said he was approached a decade ago by John Bresnik’s son, who revealed he had a potentially historic 16mm film that his father had kept in his office for half a century.

When the elder Bresnik died, the son kept the film untouched for 20 years, until Westfall coaxed him to let him make a digital copy.
“It’s a remarkable piece of history and it shows Amelia playing to the camera, playing to the audience and enjoying herself before she leaves,” said Westfall, about the soundless, black-and-white footage that shows Earhart posing for the camera in a stylish trousers-and-sweater outfit. “Looking at her – I mean, how many of those are you going to get in a lifetime?” Purchasers of the book will receive a downloadable copy of the film clip.

The photographs from the May 20, 1937 shoot, perhaps most notably the one of a smiling Earhart leaning against the tail of her Lockheed, have been seen by millions. But history is “blessed” to have a moving-picture account of the day as well, Westfall said.
Bresnik’s son eventually gave the film to Westfall, who said talks are under way for the film to be kept at an archive or museum.
Earhart’s trip continues to fascinate...


Here's Douglas Westfall's website and links for the book of these rare photos:

Typhoon on Saipan

Thoughts and prayers to all our friends on Saipan.  Hope everyone is safe and Saipan gets back on her feet as soon as possible.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/saipan-typhoon-soudelor_55bf338ae4b0b23e3ce32c16

'State Of Disaster' Declared After Typhoon Soudelor Slams Saipan

"Waking up the next day and seeing all the damage was heartbreaking."

Carla HerreriaAssociate Editor, HuffPost Hawaii

Posted: 08/03/2015 11:22 AM EDT

Saipan endured severe damage after Typhoon Soudelor passed through the island late Sunday night with maximum sustained winds of 105 miles per hour and gusts of up to 120 miles per hour.

Soudelor, which hours earlier had been upgraded from a tropical storm to a Category 1-equivalent typhoon, made a direct hit on Saipan, destroying buildings, downing trees and power lines and flooding the island's power plant, according to Pacific News Center.

After conditions subsided Monday morning, Ralph Torres, acting governor for the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, declared "a state of disaster and significant emergency" for Saipan, the largest island of the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

Most of Saipan is currently without water and power, according to local news stations. Officialsdo not know when it will be restored.

Brad Ruszala, a spokesman for the Commonwealth Utilities Corporation, told a radio show in Guam that "a huge amount of our infrastructure is just gone."

"All these power poles snapped in half [have] fallen into buildings crossing over the road. We've also had some damage to our power plants," said Ruszala. "We haven't been able to assess that completely yet... but right now we're not gonna have power for some time.”

The U.S. Coast Guard also confirmed that 500 gallons of diesel fuel had spilled into the port of Saipan and that thousands of gallons of gasoline had leaked from a storage tank. The USCG Sector Guam is in Saipan to coordinate and assist with response efforts.

The latest eyewitnesses who saw Earhart on Saipan

This is an edited clip of the footage that Mike Harris and I shot while on Saipan. 

 Included are new eyewitnesses who claim they or their relatives saw Amelia Earhart after she disappeared in 1937. There's more info and details below but this clip dovetails with the recent reports of finding pieces of her plane on Mili Atoll. Dick Spink and Les Kinney (Dick found the new pieces on Mili, Les is an investigator with nearly 30 years of investigative experience) are on their way to Saipan to survey where her body was found by US Forces. We wish them the best of luck.

 People may not like what these folks are saying - that Amelia was arrested and incarcerated in prison, that she was buried on Saipan, her body recovered, her plane and briefcase found, her plane was destroyed and buried by US forces - but important to remember these are eyewitness accounts. From US Marines, US war veterans, and people on Saipan who are amused by people who show up without any knowledge of the island.

 Saipan was claimed by Germany, sold to Spain, then became Japanese, and was part of Japan territory until 1944. (It was then run by the CIA until 1963, and is now US territory, so when you land at the airport it says "Welcome to the US." No different than Puerto Rico. So when her plane was picked up from Mili Atoll by the Japanese in 1937, according to these reports, it was taken to Japanese territory, where their Naval Headquarters was located. (Much the way Pearl Harbor was considered US territory, even though it was yet to be a state in 1941.)

 According to these eyewitness reports, Amelia was incarcerated on Japanese territory, in a Japanese cell by the Japanese authorities. Her briefcase was found by US Marine Robert Wallack, her plane was found on Aslito airfield by US Marines in June of 44, and US Marine E. Julious Nabers under command of Lt. Col. Clarence R. Wallace, decoded the messages that it had been found and was ordered to guard it. He says he guarded the plane on Aslito for 24 hours then decoded messages the military was going to fly it, and eventually destroy it. Other veterans (in this footage) saw it, and eventually watched as it was destroyed under orders from the Navy Dept. The plane was buried on the runway, which is now an international airfield. However, we have information as to where that location is, and have gotten the permits to survey the airfield. We plan on returning to do just that.

 I've been involved in this search since 1988, Mike Harris has been involved since the early 80's, and Les Kinney since around that time as well.  On behalf of Dick Spink, forensic aviation expert Jim Hayton, Les Kinney and Mike Harris (and the others who have contributed and participated) -  I'd say we all have one goal in common - to reveal whatever the truth may be about what happened to her.  We may not all appear in the various news articles regarding the latest "find" or "discovery" but we've all contributed to these revelations in our own personal way. Some of us have more "shoe leather in the game" than others, but at the end of the day it's not about who we are; it's about who she was.

Stay tuned for more details.

The Daily Mail investigates the latest reports from Dick Spink and Les Kinney

To recap:

Dick Spink is the school teacher from Seattle we've become pals with.  He and Mike Harris and Les Kinney took a trip to Mili Atoll this past spring and came back with more artifacts.  I've spoken at length with Les about some of his research, he's spot on and corrected me in a number of areas.  I'm fond of saying "we're just trying to get at the truth" so I appreciate it when someone who's done the research can cite chapter and verse of what's really going on.

But pretty much, everything we reported - her coming down in Mili, her plane being taken by the Japanese aboard a ship, Bilimon Amaron meeting her aboard the ship (Mike Harris shot that original footage), AE and Fred being taken to Saipan and incarcerated.  CBS newsman Fred Goerner reported a number of accurate details, including her dysentery (which Les believes she died from.)  As I acknowledged, people's memories are not sacrosanct, so reports from Saipan of when and where events happened are estimates at best.

But we know she was incarcerated.  We know she died on Saipan.  We know her plane was found at Aslito. We know her plane was burned by US forces. We know her briefcase was recovered. We know that her body (or part of it) was exhumed.  All of these details have both eyewitnesses, some alive, some dead, and all of them now have corroborating evidence either in the form of documents or of eyewitness footage.

Why did the US not try to rescue her once they knew she had been arrested?  Why did the Japanese not trumpet that they had caught a "spy" - something she may or may not have been, but there were two Fairchild Aerial surveillance cameras put into her plane.  We can't answer those questions, but I believe they're beside the point.  First it's important to examine what happened.  Then it's important to examine how it happened. Then it's important to examine why it happened.

We have both the what and how.  In a few weeks, Parker and Alcoa will release their report based on the pieces that Dick Spink found, that Jim Hayton has verified from his professional opinion, that Les Kinney has found and delivered to them the actual alloy document that is from the original specs on her plane, that Mike Harris got original footage of islanders back in the 1980's, that I got footage of US Marines who found her briefcase and plane, and most recently, got more reports from Saipan from people who claim they saw her there after 1937.  It is all coming together, and soon - it will be in a news story near you.

This article is from THE DAILY MAIL in the UK:

EXCLUSIVE: Are these bits of metal proof that Amelia Earhart died after being captured by the Japanese on remote Pacific atoll – and the U.S. government KNEW but covered it up? 

• Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan have not been heard of since July 1937 when they took off from New Guinea on 30th leg of round the world flight
• But two investigators hope the mystery could be at an end within weeks
• They believe they have two vital bits of evidence proving they landed in the Marshall Islands that day
• If correct, it could prove they died while in the hands of the Japanese military - and that the U.S. government decided hero pilot was 'expendable'

By KAREN EARNSHAW IN THE MARSHALL ISLANDS and RICHARD SHEARS FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 02:54 EST, 26 June 2015 | UPDATED: 10:49 EST, 26 June 2015

 
 
 
 
 

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Compelling new evidence found among the jagged coral of a tiny North Pacific island could be the key to finally unravelling the mystery of exactly what happened to U.S. aviator Amelia Earhart after she disappeared almost 80 years ago.

The corroding pieces of metal, discovered on the Mili atoll in the Marshall Islands, are currently being analysed to find out if they are the wheel well trim and dust cover from Amelia’s Lockheed Electra plane, which disappeared over the Pacific in 1937, while she and her navigator Fred Noonan were attempting to fly around the globe.

The two men behind the find believe that they are in possession of another piece of tantalising evidence that they claim proves she and her companion were captured by the Japanese and died while in their hands.

But by far the most incendiary allegation they make is that the U.S. government knew of the fate of Earhart and Noonan but did nothing to help them and then kept the dark secret for 78 years.

Scroll down for video 

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Mystery: Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan had made it most of the way around the world when they disappeared in July 1937 - sparking an enduring hunt to get to the bottom of what happened

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Off course: One of the theories is that they landed on the coral shore of a small atoll in the Marshall Islands - a theory Dick Spink (pictured on the island) and Les Kinney hope to prove after finding a piece of metal

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Discovery: Two sleuths who have dedicated years to solving the mystery believe the circular piece of metal,  left, is a dust cover from the wheel hub of Earhart's plane. It is now with experts who are analysing its authenticity

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The fate of Earhart has been the subject of endless worldwide speculation in books, movies, TV specials and has brought numerous researchers into the vast Pacific looking for vital clues.

But the men behind these latest extraordinary claims hope their discoveries will end the speculation once and for all - and within a matter of weeks.

Les Kinney and Dick Spink are convinced a skinny piece of metal and another small, circular piece of metal - which are currently being analysed by the companies which built Earhart's plane - is actually the trim and dust cover from the aircraft's landing gear, which they say broke off when it smashed along the rough coral shore at Mili at about 10am on July 2.

If it is proven to be part of Earhart's Lockheed Electra 10E it means they were more than 850 miles from Howland Island, their next scheduled refuelling stop when they disappeared.

It also puts them 2,000 miles from the spot in the sea where other Earhart sleuths believe the plane, having run out of fuel, crashed on that same morning.

But more than that, if the plane landed on Mili - as Kinney and Spink are convinced it must have - it lends credence to speculation that the doomed adventurers fell into the hands of the Japanese, who just five years later would be engaged in all-out war with the Americans.

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Opening doors: If it does prove to be part of the Lockhead Electra 10E (pictured with Earhart in 1937), it will cause people to relook at a number of other theories - including what happened next to the adventurers

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Destroyed: A close up of the wheel, which is thought to have been torn up as they landed on the coral

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Clues: Spink with the plastic replica of the dust cover that was found on Mili Atoll and a copy of the wheel hub it would have attached to

It has long been rumoured that the 39-year-old pilot and her navigator were captured by Japanese troops who were setting up military bases in the Pacific. Those troops were said to be on board a transport ship heading to the island of Saipan, where Japan had a large military base.

There are those, with Spink and Kinney among them, who claim the Lockheed was put on carts used for transporting ammunition and then loaded on to a barge that was towed to the island of Jaluit. There, it is presumed the plane was lifted onto the ship and then taken to Saipan. 

Kinney and Spink, part of a team who travelled to the Mili island last January, found the remains of three of the ammunition cart's metal wheels and axles, while the wooden tops rotted away years ago.

Kinney said: 'The rails were moved and reset until the Japanese reached the lagoon side of the beach where the plane was loaded onto a small barge with the help of 40 locals'. 

They did not die as claimed by the government and the Navy when the Electra plunged into the Pacific - they died while in Japanese captivity on the island of Saipan in the Northern Marianas. 

Amelia Earhart's fourth cousin Wally  

Suspected by the Japanese of being spies for the Americans, some claim the pair were held on Saipan until they died despite the lack of physical evidence, with the cause of their deaths the subject of further controversy.

In 2009, Wally Earhart, Amelia’s fourth cousin, said the U.S. government continued to perpetrate a ‘massive cover-up’ about the couple and insisted they had died in Japanese custody.

‘They did not die as claimed by the government and the Navy when the Electra plunged into the Pacific - they died while in Japanese captivity on the island of Saipan in the Northern Marianas,’ said Mr Earhart, who did not reveal his sources.

He said that on Saipan, Noonan was beheaded by the Japanese and Earhart died soon after from dysentery and other ailments.

Kinney and many other Earhart enthusiasts believe her plane was dumped into a giant pit in Saipan along with Japanese aircraft by US marines in the aftermath of World War Two. The pit is under a runway that is still being used. One researcher is trying to get permission to unearth the planes.

Then there was Thomas E. Devine, who served in a postal Army unit who spoke of a letter from the daughter of a Japanese police official who claimed her father was responsible for Amelia’s execution. 

Photographs have also emerged over the years claiming to show Amelia in captivity - but these have been found to be fraudulent or to have been taken before she began her flight.

There are also the claims of U.S. troops who landed on Saipan after the war went on to insist they found a safe which, after it was blown open, was found to contain a briefcase filled with Amelia’s flying documents. Another claim, more dubious, tells of the discovery of her documents in a cave on Saipan.

Short film taken before Amelia Earhart's last flight surfaces

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Possibilities: If the duo are right, Earhart and Noonan were more than 850 miles off course. They were meant to land on Howland Island (centre), although others suspect they could have crashed nearer Gardner Island (bottom, far right). It would give credence to the idea they were taken to Japanese base at Saipan (top left)

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Route: Earhart was trying to become the first woman to fly around the world - starting in Oakland on May 20

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Not impossible: Many said it would be impossible to reach Mili in Earhart's plane, but Spink claims this fuel report proves it would have been possible - lending more credence to their claims

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Eyewitnesses: There are also a number of eyewitness accounts, including islanders who said they watched Earhart land to the right of where the research boat (circled) is moored

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More hints: These wheels could have been used by the Japanese to take the plane off the island - it would have originally had a wooden platform in the middle, but it has rotten away

But how would all this have been kept quiet for some many years? 

Kinney and Spink believe politics, national security and even Japanese loss of face all play their part in the failure for Earhart's fate to be exposed by the U.S. and Japan.

‘At the time, cultural attitudes in Japan placed great emphasis on “saving face”,’ Kinney told MailOnline. ‘The Japanese aversion to being humiliated would not allow an announcement Earhart had been found even if only a few days had elapsed since her discovery on Mili atoll.

‘No less a factor was the rise of Japanese militancy. In the 1930s, the Japanese military considered the United States an enemy and would have quickly concluded, whether it was true or not, that Amelia Earhart had been sent on a spy mission.’

That mission, he said, would likely have been an assessment of whether the Japanese were militarily fortifying the Marshall Islands.

What's more, he believes the U.S. knew within a few weeks that Earhart and Noonan were in the custody of the Japanese but could do nothing.

‘If they had, the Japanese would have known the U.S. had broken their closely-guarded military and diplomatic codes. The U.S. decided Earhart would become expendable.’ 

But while some will be quick to dismiss this in particular as the wild rantings of a conspiracy theorist, Kinney, a former U.S. Federal law enforcement agent, believes he has one more piece of evidence in his possession which will prove his claim beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Kinney said that after spending hundreds of hours combing national archives in the US, he unearthed one vital document that ‘would be tough for the government to refute.’ 

He is unwilling to make its contents public yet until his remaining investigations are complete. 

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Prisoners: Earhart, pictured arriving in Southampton, is said to have been taken from Mili Atoll by the Japanese, who - in some accounts - executed Noonan before she died of dysentery on Saipan

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Artifacts: These are other pieces of metal found on Mili. Most have been discounted as not coming from Earhart's plane, but the long piece of metal on the left may be significant

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Dedicated: Spink, in his workshop in Washington State, has spent thousands of dollars to prove his theory

Kinney has also relied heavily on an account of the discovery of what is said to have been Amelia’s briefcase on Saipan - a discovery made in July 1944 by U.S. Marine Robert Wallack.

After American troops landed on Saipan, Wallack was part of a team ordered to blow up a Japanese safe.

Inside, he has claimed, he found a briefcase that contained Amelia’s navigational gear, her passport, maps and other personal documents. He gave the briefcase to a high-ranking naval officer on the beach.

‘In my opinion,’ Kinney told MailOnline, ‘the briefcase was sent back to Washington, D.C., some time in late July or August of 1944. It most likely went to the White House and then on to some secure storage facility of the Navy. There is a good chance it later was destroyed.’

It was also in 1944, he says, that two Marine privates, on orders from a watchful Marine Intelligence officer, dug up a grave outside an old Catholic cemetery on Saipan. The skeletal remains of two people were thrown into a canister. 

The Japanese would have known the U.S. had broken their closely-guarded military and diplomatic codes. The U.S. decided Earhart would become expendable.

Les Kinney 

‘When the two privates asked what they were doing, the intelligence officer replied “Have you ever heard of Amelia Earhart?”’

Kinney added that in 1968, four researchers from Cleveland dug up the same grave and unearthed 189 bone fragments. Years later, with the advent of DNA, the researchers tried to retrieve the bones from the archaeological museum where they had been stored - but they were missing. 

‘Officials at the museum have no idea what happened to the bones,’ said Kinney.

Kinney, who has been investigating the Earhart mystery for 27 years, dismisses the competing theory that Amelia crashed on Gardner Island, now known as Nikumaroro, while trying to reach her intended destination on Howland Island.

He insisted ‘she didn’t make it - for whatever reason, Earhart missed Howland island from the west and continued in a north-easterly direction.’

Many say the distance to Mili would have been impossible for the Electra to cover.

But Kinney and Spink, a 53-year-old American science teacher who has spent thousands of dollars of his own money investigating the Earhart disappearance, believe it was possible. 

They insist that because Earhart had extra fuel tanks on board the plane she had ample fuel to make it - and Kinney has uncovered a Lockheed fuel study which he said proves she could have made it.

And his belief is backed up by contemporary accounts from the islands that they have collected on their visit. 

Kinney told MailOnline: ‘After leaving Lae, New Guinea, Earhart must have landed at Mili atoll just after 10am local time. The tidal charts for that time and date indicate the tide was beginning to recede.

‘Two Marshallese eyewitnesses to Earhart’s landing, fishing not far away, said two people left the plane in a small yellow boat.’

They add that numerous people in the Marshall Islands have told them of seeing the two fliers on Mili island before they were captured by the Japanese and taken on board the tramp steamer, the Koshu Maru.

The damaged Electra plane was loaded onto a barge and towed behind the Koshu Maru to two other atolls before mooring at Saipan.   

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Expendable: Some people also believe the Americans knew Earhart (pictured 1937) had been taken prisoner

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Abandoned: Despite being a hero, she was left to her fate as the Japanese believed she was a spy, it's claimed

Spink said he had been told by many people that local Bilimon Amram, who was half-Japanese and working as a medic on Jaluit atoll - one of the atolls the Koshu Maru stopped at to refuel - had claimed he treated Noonan for a leg injury.

‘Everyone told me Bilimon bandaged Fred’s infected leg,’ said Spink, accounts that also convinced him that the two Americans had been picked up on Mili Atoll. 

What's more, the men and other members of the Mili expedition found a number of pieces of metal they thought could have been part of a plane - discoveries made more compelling by the fact there were no other planes on the small island and no air battles had been fought overhead or close by.

But one of these pieces, thought to be from an auxiliary power unit, has since been discounted.

So the two men and the rest of the investigating team now pin their hopes on two remaining pieces. The first is the corroded circle they hope may have been the dust shield that fitted over the brake assembly of a GoodYear wheel.

The second is the thin piece of metal they believe is part of the wheel well of the plane.  

It is being tested, along with other pieces, by metals giant Alcoa and aviation firm Parker Aerospace who are comparing their chemical elements to those of contemporary aircraft. 

The official held belief is that the aircraft is 'on the bottom of the Pacific', 18,000 feet down but close to Howland, said Tom Crouch, senior curator at the U.S. National Air and Space Museum. 

In the meantime, Spink still clings to his memory of the extraordinary moment that led to today’s possible breakthrough in the Earhart mystery - a moment during a party with friends in the Marshall Islands.

‘Didn’t Amelia Earhart disappear in this part of the world?’ he asked.

‘Yes,’ a local man answered. ‘She landed on our island and my uncle watched her for two days.’ 

* At dawn on August 4, 1944, the 2,295-ton Koshu Maru, carrying air base supplies, was hit by four US torpedoes in the Makassar Strait and sank immediately with the loss of 273 passengers, 28 crew members and gunners and 1,239 Javanese labourers. 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3139044/Are-bits-metal-proof-Amelia-Earhart-died-captured-Japanese-remote-Pacific-atoll-U-S-government-KNEW-covered-up.html#ixzz3eb9qfcJj
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