by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear 

In the last couple of blogs, we looked at the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena 1978 UFO Chronology, which was unusual for the large number of humanoid reports with space suits, helmets and antennas in the descriptions. We also noted that there seemed to have been a flap in Italy in December and that one case listed that month is worthy of individual attention. The principal witness/experiencer was Piero Fortunato Zanfretta, and his story was investigated by Italian journalist Rino Di Stefano, who wrote a book about it that he published in 2014 titled The Zanfretta Case.

According to Di Stefano on his website promoting the book (we have read the book and recommend it), he isn’t a UFOlogist. He says that at the time of the incident, he was working at the Genoa Corriere Mercantile and looked into the case as a reporter. He then gives his account.

On December 6, 1978, just after midnight, Zanfretta, a private security guard, was on patrol in his Fiat 126 on “a dark and moonless night” near Genoa in the village of Torriglia. It was very cold, and the roads were icy after a snowfall that day. As he came up to a client’s empty country house in Marzano, his engine, lights, and radio stopped. He saw four lights moving around in the garden and got out to investigate, bringing along his gun and flashlight.

He went through a gate and moved along a wall in an attempt to surprise whoever might be there. He then felt something touching him from behind. He turned around and was “filled with terror” as he found himself inches away from what he described as “an enormous green, ugly and frightful creature, with undulating skin, no less than ten feet tall.”

Zanfretta dropped his flashlight out of fright when the beam from it hit the creature’s face, but he managed to pick it up as he turned and ran. As he was doing so, he noted that there was a large bright light behind him. Turning around, he saw that it was coming from a triangular craft that made a hissing sound and was bigger than the house it rose up behind. He said later that he felt an intense heat.

Zanfretta went to his car and called the security center. According to Di Stefano, Carlo Toccalino, the radio operator, “testified” that Zanfretta kept repeating excitedly, “My God, are they ugly!” and when asked if they were human said “No, they aren’t men, they aren’t men,” just before communication was lost.

Toccalino called the head of the security service, and an hour later, at 1:15 am, two guards found Zanfretta lying on the ground in front of the house. “Eyes bulging,” with gun and flashlight in hand, he jumped to his feet when he saw them and didn’t seem to recognize or understand them when they told him to lower his gun. The guards moved in to disarm him and were surprised to find that his clothes were warm in spite of the cold night.

The Carabinieri (Italian military police) investigated and found 9-feet-diameter horseshoe-shaped imprints in back of the house.  The commandant of the Torriglia station, Antonio Nucchi, found that 52 residents there had witnessed a bright glare from the area of the house at the time of Zanfretta’s reported encounter.

The story made the local papers, and DiStefano says that while “most journalists” didn’t want to look into it too closely, he decided to because he didn’t believe that a responsible family man with a good reputation would put his job at risk with such a ridiculous story. He was also moved by the 52 witnesses discovered by Nucchi.

According to Di Stefano, the head of Zanfretta’s company believed he was “an honest man,” but was worried about bad publicity. Zanfretta is said to seemed “shy” and “uneasy” and to have said, “People call me on the phone at all hours just to play jokes on me. I don’t know what it was that I saw, but I saw it. I am not a liar”

Zanfretta agreed to be hypnotized and what came out reads like an extremely bizarre combination of a contactee and abduction experience. He said he was taken by “monsters about 10 feet tall, with hairy green skin, yellow triangular eyes and red veins across the forehead” that took him to a bright, hot place where they examined him. They told him they were from the “third galaxy,” wanted to talk to the people of Earth, and would return soon in greater numbers. They didn’t speak Italian and used a “luminous device” to translate.

Zanfretta was found by his co-workers at in a field at 1:10 am. Even though it was raining, his clothes and head were “warm and dry.” He was scared, shaking, and crying, and said, “They say I must leave with them. What about my children? I don’t want to, I don’t want to…”

The Carabinieri were called, and when they examined the car, they found that its roof felt like it had been out in the sun all day, and its interior was “as hot as an oven.” They also discovered huge footprints all around it that were 20 inches long and 8 inches wide, “with a distinct empty spot between sole and heel.” Zanfretta’s gun was found to have been fired five times, but he didn’t remember who (or what) he’d fired at.

Nucchi sent an official report to the Genoa Magistrates Court to find out what sort of action should be taken, and it ended up being “filed away with this declaration: ‘no crime committed.’” Meanwhile this latest episode created a lot of media interest, and Zanfretta ended up getting hypnotized on local television, which led to him appearing on national television. His story went beyond Italy and gained worldwide attention, but there were still more episodes to come.

Next Week: More strangeness and more evidence.

For a detailed account of Zanfretta’s first encounter see page 5 of the Vol. 25, No. 1,   Flying Saucer Review.