Just spent a month on Saipan interviewing islanders who saw her and Fred Noonan there after 1937. So far we have at least a dozen interviews. Some excerpts available at:
Earhart On Saipan
Earhart On Saipan
Earhart's Electra: New Eyewitness Evidence
Coast to Coast Tues 9-11 11 pm to 2 am
I think I might have been driving from SF to LA one night and in Fresno, tuned into George Noory's "Coast to Coast AM" -- I know it was a show that was either out there, or almost out there, and when I got an email the other day asking if I'd like to come on the show and speak about "Flipside" - I thought - "well there you go." Here's what they have on their site already: Tue 09-11 Navigating the Afterlife
But on the other hand, I tuned into the show a few nights ago, and listened to this guy describe something that really wasn't very believable. And after George asked him a few questions, he took phone calls - and there were people calling in around the globe talking about the same problem this guy was having. And at some point I realized I had gone from skeptic to skept.... I wasn't convince it was actually real, but I was convinced it was worth looking into...
Which is the experience you're going to have tuning in to listen to me speak about "Flipside: a Tourist's Guide on How to Navigate the Afterlife" on 9-11-12 from 11 am to 2 am east coast time. I'm also going to talk about my film "Earhart's Electra: Eyewitness Reports on What Happened to Amelia Earhart's plane."
I don't think you have to tune into the site at that very moment - or go to your local radio show - they put all the shows up online, so if you want to wait a couple of years before hearing it, be my guest.
At this point, I'm not even sure I can stay up past midnight any more (ah, those days of all nighters in college!), and if you hear me breathing heavily into the phone, please think WAKE UP RICH.
I'm flattered to be invited, I think to myself - ok, having written for Variety, Premiere, Inc.com - having written and directed a number of feature films - what the heck am I doing on Coast to Coast? I guess you'll have to tune in to fine out.
Best,
Rich
Tighar At It Again!
No, wait! We didn't miss Amelia's plane. We found a debris field near the island where we've been taking people to for the past 20 years! Hold on! Don't leave yet!
I can't fathom why the media keeps buying this story. It's hilarious.
Consider the facts. These trips to Gardner Isle have resulted in a comb, freckle goop, some turtle bones. Nothing else. Really? You think that if she had actually been there, there might have been anything else?
There's been a deep sea expedition - millions have been spent on finding - nothing. Oh wait. A debris field. "Could this be the resting place of Amelia Earhart's Electra?" Oh my!
And how did this come about? A photo dug out of the archives, of what may or may not have been Nessie, or a piece of an aircraft in 1937 in the water. So the guy who took the photo - he didn't notice it, just happened to catch this landing gear bobbing in the water. What could it be?
I don't even get the logic of what we're talking about here. A photo of what may or may not be a landing gear in the water near Gardner? What the heck does that have to do with Earhart's Electra? It's crazy. There's not a single shred of any evidence, eyewitness or otherwise that she went anywhere near Gardner.
Wow. Denial is not a river in Egypt.
and now - for some other details - actual eyewitness reports from people who saw her, saw the plane, and saw what happened to it. C'mon guys - reporters - get out your pencils. Do some homework, please!
Over 200 islanders saw her or Fred Noonan after 1937 in and around the Marshall Islands. These people have been interviewed in books and on film. (Oliver Knaggs, many others, Fred Goerner, etc).
US Marines found her plane on June 18th, 1944 at Aslito airfield. If you watch the film that's referenced here you will see them speak for themselves on camera. They decoded the message that said they'd found her plane (and not some look alike plane) they guarded her plane, and they destroyed her plane.
Full stop.
They buried it off the runway at Aslito airfield. They covered it in dirt. The aluminum has not deteriorated. It is still there. The runway hasn't changed. The documentary film "Earhart's Electra" SHOWS WHERE the spot on the runway is. You want to become the person who found AMELIA EARHART'S AIRPLANE? Don't go to Gardner. Don't go undersea. Take some equipment, get some permits and start digging where these US Marines claim they saw her plane, saw it destroyed on the runway. It's within a fifty yard radius of the maps in this film. It's still there. Waiting for someone with a shovel. Get to work.
End of story.
Have a nice trip, and don't forget to thank me at Oscar time.
Rich Martini
 |
| During the invasion of Saipan, US Marines found her plane. |
Consider the facts. These trips to Gardner Isle have resulted in a comb, freckle goop, some turtle bones. Nothing else. Really? You think that if she had actually been there, there might have been anything else?
There's been a deep sea expedition - millions have been spent on finding - nothing. Oh wait. A debris field. "Could this be the resting place of Amelia Earhart's Electra?" Oh my!
And how did this come about? A photo dug out of the archives, of what may or may not have been Nessie, or a piece of an aircraft in 1937 in the water. So the guy who took the photo - he didn't notice it, just happened to catch this landing gear bobbing in the water. What could it be?
I don't even get the logic of what we're talking about here. A photo of what may or may not be a landing gear in the water near Gardner? What the heck does that have to do with Earhart's Electra? It's crazy. There's not a single shred of any evidence, eyewitness or otherwise that she went anywhere near Gardner.
Wow. Denial is not a river in Egypt.
and now - for some other details - actual eyewitness reports from people who saw her, saw the plane, and saw what happened to it. C'mon guys - reporters - get out your pencils. Do some homework, please!
Over 200 islanders saw her or Fred Noonan after 1937 in and around the Marshall Islands. These people have been interviewed in books and on film. (Oliver Knaggs, many others, Fred Goerner, etc).
US Marines found her plane on June 18th, 1944 at Aslito airfield. If you watch the film that's referenced here you will see them speak for themselves on camera. They decoded the message that said they'd found her plane (and not some look alike plane) they guarded her plane, and they destroyed her plane.
Full stop.
 |
| Bob Wallack, US Marine, found her briefcase on Saipan in 44. |
They buried it off the runway at Aslito airfield. They covered it in dirt. The aluminum has not deteriorated. It is still there. The runway hasn't changed. The documentary film "Earhart's Electra" SHOWS WHERE the spot on the runway is. You want to become the person who found AMELIA EARHART'S AIRPLANE? Don't go to Gardner. Don't go undersea. Take some equipment, get some permits and start digging where these US Marines claim they saw her plane, saw it destroyed on the runway. It's within a fifty yard radius of the maps in this film. It's still there. Waiting for someone with a shovel. Get to work.
End of story.
 |
| Honor her memory properly. Tell the truth. |
Rich Martini
The Film is Live on Amazon
The film is now streaming live at Amazon.com for $14.99 or $1.99 for instant viewing -- I think that's kinda steep for a documentary, but Amazon sets the initial price, and then it gets discounted. I will see about putting the film up as a DVD which then can be discounted for streaming video. But if you want to know what happened to Amelia Earhart's Electra in the words of eyewitnesses who were there when they found it on Saipan of June of 1944, the film is available now. (You can watch it streaming for $10 - click the paypal button on the right side of this page)
I've been working on this project since 1989. I did my best to make it a feature film with actors, and it may still one day be that. I then went the route of trying to get this information out through National Geographic and the History Channel. National Geo did a documentary - a clip is on the panel to the right - where they took the evidence and made a documentary about it. But they fell short of telling the real story - of what happened to Amelia.
In honor of her birthday, in honor of those veterans who are still alive who told me their story, I'm putting this film into the world. I apologize to the veterans who've already died after I interviewed them - I had no idea it would take this long.
I fully hope that people will use this research as evidence for their own books, their own documentaries, their own projects. After all, no one can own the truth. What happened to Amelia Earhart is tragic, but it doesn't diminish in any way her achievements. By destroying her plane, the US military did a disservice to her memory and to the Nation as well. Shame on them for doing so - however, they were in the midst of the greatest conflagration in our nation's history, and decisions were made that soldiers had to live with. So in the spirit of those soldiers who gave their lives during World War II, I fault no one for covering this information up all these years.
I do fault the media, and the numerous other researchers who let their assumptions, their suppositions rather than the hard facts of eyewitness reports guide their research. I applaud Fred Goerner who was a reporter who nearly told the entire story back in the 1960's - and he followed his instincts, rather than what he guessed might have happened. He didn't get all the facts, but he nearly did.
I hope that others will lead an expedition to dig up the plane from its gravesite. It's not under water, it's under dirt, and it's still there, where these soldiers saw it burned. I wanted to make that expedition part of this film, alas, it wasn't meant to be. There may be a better, more concise, more well produced documentary to be made from this information - but it's all here; the eyewitnesses, what they say, and the details of what happened to Amelia Earhart's plane.
Without further adieu: CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE DOCUMENTARY FOR $14.99
I've been working on this project since 1989. I did my best to make it a feature film with actors, and it may still one day be that. I then went the route of trying to get this information out through National Geographic and the History Channel. National Geo did a documentary - a clip is on the panel to the right - where they took the evidence and made a documentary about it. But they fell short of telling the real story - of what happened to Amelia.
In honor of her birthday, in honor of those veterans who are still alive who told me their story, I'm putting this film into the world. I apologize to the veterans who've already died after I interviewed them - I had no idea it would take this long.
I fully hope that people will use this research as evidence for their own books, their own documentaries, their own projects. After all, no one can own the truth. What happened to Amelia Earhart is tragic, but it doesn't diminish in any way her achievements. By destroying her plane, the US military did a disservice to her memory and to the Nation as well. Shame on them for doing so - however, they were in the midst of the greatest conflagration in our nation's history, and decisions were made that soldiers had to live with. So in the spirit of those soldiers who gave their lives during World War II, I fault no one for covering this information up all these years.
I do fault the media, and the numerous other researchers who let their assumptions, their suppositions rather than the hard facts of eyewitness reports guide their research. I applaud Fred Goerner who was a reporter who nearly told the entire story back in the 1960's - and he followed his instincts, rather than what he guessed might have happened. He didn't get all the facts, but he nearly did.
I hope that others will lead an expedition to dig up the plane from its gravesite. It's not under water, it's under dirt, and it's still there, where these soldiers saw it burned. I wanted to make that expedition part of this film, alas, it wasn't meant to be. There may be a better, more concise, more well produced documentary to be made from this information - but it's all here; the eyewitnesses, what they say, and the details of what happened to Amelia Earhart's plane.
Without further adieu: CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE DOCUMENTARY FOR $14.99
 |
| Earhart's Electra: Eyewitness Accounts of What Happened to Amelia Earhart's Plane - 70 minutes |
What Happened to Amelia Earhart and her plane
It's the 115th anniversary of her birthday.
I'll note it by talking about my theory of what happened to her. It's different from the details of what happened to her based on eyewitness accounts. Those are other people's accounts of what happened to her,which I report in my documentary 'EARHART'S ELECTRA: Eyewitness Reports of What Happened to Amelia Earhart's Plane' - it's available through paypal.com on this page - on the right column:
But there's a difference between what happened and why it happened.
Let's start with what happened:
She left Lae New Guinea and headed towards Howland island. The Coast Guard still had the old radio plan that was devised by Harry Manning (Elgen Long's book "The Mystery Solved"), but Harry Manning wasn't on the flight. And according to Amelia herself (Conversation with Thai Pilots in "The Last Flight") she didn't know Morse Code, nor did Fred Noonan. The plan that Harry devised had the Coast Guard communicating with her in Morse Code - no one changed that plan, even though Harry left the flight after her crash in Hawaii.
So that's a major screw up. As she was headed towards Howland, she was off course - a recent theory has come forward that because of the international dateline (the site "DatelineTherory.com" is from a former NASA employee who has worked with the folks at Tighar who are currently searching for her plane in the wrong direction) she may have been already 250 miles off course - this woman plotted her course some 250 NW of where she was supposed to be, but running along the same line where she should have been. Off the target by 250 miles, but on the same line the target was on.
According to eyewitnesses, her plane came down in Mili atoll - which is a further 200 miles NW of where she last reported her heading. Is that possible for her to run out of fuel and fly 200 miles? There was also the report of winds that whipped up from a tropical storm - the simple answer is that could she have flown an extra 400 miles as she was running out of gas from Howland? No. But if she was already off course by 250 miles - then yes, she could have made it.
But my argument in this area isn't whether it's possible or not - the argument is that people saw her plane come down. One was the queen of Mili atoll and she reported that fact to a newsman from South Africa, Oliver Knaggs, who wrote a book in the 1980's about it. (Hard to get the book, but I have a copy). I also spoke to a cameraman who shot footage for that expeditiion - he said the footage is still in a vault in Florida, due to some kind of financial issue. Film negative by and large goes into a vault - and should still be there. But her words were recorded by this fellow and put into his book.
Combine that with the book that has over 200 islanders who claim to have seen her and Fred Noonan after they disappeared - I have a copy of that book as well - some islanders say they saw "a white man and a white woman with short hair" - others say different descriptions - but the overall effect is that Amelia and Fred were seen after they disappeared. Specifically eyewitnesses claim they were seen in Jaluit where the plane was taken, and later in Garapan where they were incarcerated.
The Electra made it to Aslito airfield where it was found on June 18, 1944. How do I know that? It's in the interviews. The day they liberated the field they found the plane. Everyone knew it was her plane, the GI who decoded the message from HQ wrote it down verbatim: "We have found Amelia Earhart's plane at Aslito airfield." Not "we have found an aluminum electra that looks alot like earhart's plane" - or "we have found a replica of earhart's plane" - everyone who saw the plane recognized it. It had only been 7 years since she disappeared, and it was arguably one of the most famous plane in the world outside of the Spirit of St. Louis.
So I've uploaded my film - you can purchase it for viewing by clicking on the link.
I am sending a copy to Amazon to put it up there as well, so in a few weeks it will be downloadable, searchable, etc. Why did it happen? Remains to be seen. I have my own theories, but they're just that - not based on any evidence.... YET.
That's my contribution to Amelia's birthday. Happy Birthday Amelia!
What Really Happened to Amelia Earhart
Well, there's life in the old girl yet.
I love that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has weighed in on her love for Amelia Earhart.
I think it's fantastic that Ric Gillespie and Tighar.org are going to mount yet another expedition to Gardner Island. I don't think there's every been anyone with a track record as theirs, that has gotten so many bites at the apple. In the film business, you make a film and you get no results - you find it harder to make a film. This is around the 7th or 8th time Tighar is heading off to Gardner to find Amelia Earhart. Go figure.
Let's see. So far they found her shoe. Well, no, turned out to be a man's shoe. So they said "she was probably wearing men's shoes." Sorry, wasn't her shoe. They found a piece of plane. They had it analyzed. Not from her plane. ABC financed a few of these trips. Last year they "found her bones!" Well, might have been her bones - actually, Ric said in a moment of candor, it's "either hers or a turtles." The results were "inconclusive."
Oh my God! Now he's got the US State Dept heading off to Gardner isle with him. I can't believe it. I'm either incredibly jealous (most likely) or incredibly amused. One of the two. One tiny small bit of detail that they're overlooking.
She was never there.
How do I know that? Well, let's stack up the columns. On their side, they say the Gardner was on the line that she was traveling when she missed Howland - true - it's about 225 miles SE of Howland. So far so good. She could have gone that way. There's no eyewitnesses to that fact. And none that saw her or the Electra there after she disappeared. So that's on the minus side. On the plus side - tighar.org maintains the most extensive, up to date, excellent site about what happened to AE prior to her disappearance. I have no qualms with the quality of the sight, and the information there - it's brilliant.
But she didn't go SE to Gardner.
How do I know? I have read accounts of over 200 eyewitnesses who claim they saw her or Fred Noonan in and around the Marianas after her disappearance. This is not some theory. This is not some hair brained notion. These are written and videotaped accounts by islanders who saw they saw her, the Electra, or some version of a white female flyer that looked like her in and around the Marianas. They claim her plane came down in Mili Atoll. (the Queen of the island claimed that along with other folks.) People discount that she could have made it to Mili - it's 400 miles NW of Howland. But then why are these islanders saying she landed there, and that the Japanese picked up her plane there? there's a new theory that proves it possible - it's the time line theory that shows that if Noonan miscalculated the international timeline in his navigation,he would have been 200 miles NW of howland when they were lost. That means she only had 200 miles to continue on to the Marianas. Either way - to me, the fact that a number of people saw the plane come down, saw troops arrest her, saw the plane transported - trumps how she got there. She deserves credit for an amazing feat - landing her Electra on an atoll. They claim her ship was taken by Japanese barge off the shore and transported to Majuro where it was put aboard a Japanese ship that the US was told was "searching for her" and later that it was far away. But I have eyewitnesses who place the Koshu Maru in Jaluit - and with the Electra on the back of the ship. I have an eyewitness who went aboard and saw her and Fred Noonan - attended to their wounds.
Why isn't this well known?
I don't know. Because he's an islander? Because he was half Japanese? I have no idea. But he isn't the only one.
Then we have the people on Saipan who saw her in her cell on Garapan, we have numerous accounts of her incarceration - and her and Fred's execution a number of years later. All eyewitnesses. Then we have the US Marines who found her briefcase in a safe on the island, who then found her plane, the Electra in a hangar on Aslito airfield. I have 5 of them on film telling their story. They didn't know each other - and amazingly, they were witnesses to the same events. And they watched as the US forces destroyed the Electra.
Why?
I have no idea. I don't really care either. Because I'm not trying to prove anything - I'm just looking at the eyewitness reports and conveying what they say. I'm sorry it isn't what tighar.org has thought happened to her - it would be infinitely more appealing to imagine her and Fred on a deserted island instead of sitting in a dark cell (where if you go to Garapan prison, they'll give you a tour of their cells - they're still there.) What happened to her body? It was recovered by a US Navy man who was tasked to find her - he recovered her briefcase, recovered her body (also reported in the Stars and Stripes in 1944 for anyone who's looking), and oversaw the destruction of her plane. I have a positive ID of this man by a US Marine who swore to me "Beyond a shadow of a doubt, that's the man that I saw destroy Amelia Earhart's airplane." That's a US Marine. Not a faded photograph of some ship parked off Gardner island that may or may not have some engine part in the background. My God. I can't believe I'm still trying to tell this story.
For those of you who think you know this story better than anyone, I'll ask three simple questions.
1. In her book "Last Flight" AE reports of an evening spent with Thai pilots where she reveals to them that she's ignorant of how to work a very important device that's on her plane. Can you name that device?
2. During World War II, George Putnam was in the Army Air Corps. He was stationed on an island in the Pacific and he put in for leave for two weeks where he visited an island nearby that might have revealed everything he didn't know about her disappearance. Can you name either island?
3. According to a Navy mechanic interviewed by two authors, (who later became a California Highway Patrolman) he installed two objects in AE's Electra for gathering information. It was around the time that she was quoted as saying "Imagine me, being a spy." Can you name the devices?
I've been at this as long as Mr Gillespie. So I applaud him for gaining the support of the State Dept. But I wish, truly wish, he'd stay open to the possibility, however faint it might be in his mind, that perhaps these stories about her winding up on Saipan might have some truth to them. Because the truth.. will set you free.
Anyways, watch the video. See for yourself. I worked and was credited on the film "Amelia" as well as Diane Keaton's version - I've done everything in my power to get producers to take a look at the real story - she deserves to have her story told. She was more of an American hero than we think she was, more than we know - she died in service for her country. And no one has stood up to salute her for it.
I love that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has weighed in on her love for Amelia Earhart.
I think it's fantastic that Ric Gillespie and Tighar.org are going to mount yet another expedition to Gardner Island. I don't think there's every been anyone with a track record as theirs, that has gotten so many bites at the apple. In the film business, you make a film and you get no results - you find it harder to make a film. This is around the 7th or 8th time Tighar is heading off to Gardner to find Amelia Earhart. Go figure.
Let's see. So far they found her shoe. Well, no, turned out to be a man's shoe. So they said "she was probably wearing men's shoes." Sorry, wasn't her shoe. They found a piece of plane. They had it analyzed. Not from her plane. ABC financed a few of these trips. Last year they "found her bones!" Well, might have been her bones - actually, Ric said in a moment of candor, it's "either hers or a turtles." The results were "inconclusive."
Oh my God! Now he's got the US State Dept heading off to Gardner isle with him. I can't believe it. I'm either incredibly jealous (most likely) or incredibly amused. One of the two. One tiny small bit of detail that they're overlooking.
She was never there.
How do I know that? Well, let's stack up the columns. On their side, they say the Gardner was on the line that she was traveling when she missed Howland - true - it's about 225 miles SE of Howland. So far so good. She could have gone that way. There's no eyewitnesses to that fact. And none that saw her or the Electra there after she disappeared. So that's on the minus side. On the plus side - tighar.org maintains the most extensive, up to date, excellent site about what happened to AE prior to her disappearance. I have no qualms with the quality of the sight, and the information there - it's brilliant.
But she didn't go SE to Gardner.
How do I know? I have read accounts of over 200 eyewitnesses who claim they saw her or Fred Noonan in and around the Marianas after her disappearance. This is not some theory. This is not some hair brained notion. These are written and videotaped accounts by islanders who saw they saw her, the Electra, or some version of a white female flyer that looked like her in and around the Marianas. They claim her plane came down in Mili Atoll. (the Queen of the island claimed that along with other folks.) People discount that she could have made it to Mili - it's 400 miles NW of Howland. But then why are these islanders saying she landed there, and that the Japanese picked up her plane there? there's a new theory that proves it possible - it's the time line theory that shows that if Noonan miscalculated the international timeline in his navigation,he would have been 200 miles NW of howland when they were lost. That means she only had 200 miles to continue on to the Marianas. Either way - to me, the fact that a number of people saw the plane come down, saw troops arrest her, saw the plane transported - trumps how she got there. She deserves credit for an amazing feat - landing her Electra on an atoll. They claim her ship was taken by Japanese barge off the shore and transported to Majuro where it was put aboard a Japanese ship that the US was told was "searching for her" and later that it was far away. But I have eyewitnesses who place the Koshu Maru in Jaluit - and with the Electra on the back of the ship. I have an eyewitness who went aboard and saw her and Fred Noonan - attended to their wounds.
Why isn't this well known?
I don't know. Because he's an islander? Because he was half Japanese? I have no idea. But he isn't the only one.
Then we have the people on Saipan who saw her in her cell on Garapan, we have numerous accounts of her incarceration - and her and Fred's execution a number of years later. All eyewitnesses. Then we have the US Marines who found her briefcase in a safe on the island, who then found her plane, the Electra in a hangar on Aslito airfield. I have 5 of them on film telling their story. They didn't know each other - and amazingly, they were witnesses to the same events. And they watched as the US forces destroyed the Electra.
Why?
I have no idea. I don't really care either. Because I'm not trying to prove anything - I'm just looking at the eyewitness reports and conveying what they say. I'm sorry it isn't what tighar.org has thought happened to her - it would be infinitely more appealing to imagine her and Fred on a deserted island instead of sitting in a dark cell (where if you go to Garapan prison, they'll give you a tour of their cells - they're still there.) What happened to her body? It was recovered by a US Navy man who was tasked to find her - he recovered her briefcase, recovered her body (also reported in the Stars and Stripes in 1944 for anyone who's looking), and oversaw the destruction of her plane. I have a positive ID of this man by a US Marine who swore to me "Beyond a shadow of a doubt, that's the man that I saw destroy Amelia Earhart's airplane." That's a US Marine. Not a faded photograph of some ship parked off Gardner island that may or may not have some engine part in the background. My God. I can't believe I'm still trying to tell this story.
For those of you who think you know this story better than anyone, I'll ask three simple questions.
1. In her book "Last Flight" AE reports of an evening spent with Thai pilots where she reveals to them that she's ignorant of how to work a very important device that's on her plane. Can you name that device?
2. During World War II, George Putnam was in the Army Air Corps. He was stationed on an island in the Pacific and he put in for leave for two weeks where he visited an island nearby that might have revealed everything he didn't know about her disappearance. Can you name either island?
3. According to a Navy mechanic interviewed by two authors, (who later became a California Highway Patrolman) he installed two objects in AE's Electra for gathering information. It was around the time that she was quoted as saying "Imagine me, being a spy." Can you name the devices?
I've been at this as long as Mr Gillespie. So I applaud him for gaining the support of the State Dept. But I wish, truly wish, he'd stay open to the possibility, however faint it might be in his mind, that perhaps these stories about her winding up on Saipan might have some truth to them. Because the truth.. will set you free.
Anyways, watch the video. See for yourself. I worked and was credited on the film "Amelia" as well as Diane Keaton's version - I've done everything in my power to get producers to take a look at the real story - she deserves to have her story told. She was more of an American hero than we think she was, more than we know - she died in service for her country. And no one has stood up to salute her for it.
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