by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear 

In last week’s blog, we looked at the first two UFO and occupant encounters reported by Italian security guard Piero Fortunato Zanfretta. The case was investigated by the Carabinieri (Italian Military Police) and evidence was found in the form of possible landing traces in the first and second instances with the addition of huge footprints in the second. In conscious recall, Zanfretta described encountering “an enormous green, ugly and frightful creature, with undulating skin, no less than ten feet tall.” Under hypnosis after the first instance, he said he was taken to a bright, hot place and examined by “monsters about 10 feet tall, with hairy green skin, yellow triangular eyes and red veins across the forehead” (he also described them having metal strips over their mouths) that told him they were from the “third galaxy,” wanted to talk to the people of Earth, and would return soon in greater numbers. Italian journalist Rino Di Stefano became interested in the case, stuck with it, and wrote a book about it titled The Zanfretta Case, first published in Italian in 1984 and then in English in 2014. The reader can refer to his website promoting the book for most of the information.

According to Di Stefano, Zanfretta’s second “encounter,” where his car was found by the Carabinieri to have been extremely hot inside and out in spite of the winter cold, got a lot of publicity. A hypnosis session was again arranged with the original psychotherapist, Dr. Mauro Moretti, except that this time it was to be televised on local station TVS.

The story that came out of this is described in the book, but Zanfretta was hypnotized multiple times and Di Stefano isn’t strict about chronology. It seems that in this session he described being taken up into a triangular craft in a beam of green light. According to him, the inside of the craft appeared to be too big to be accommodated by it and resembled a city. One of the creatures (in the hypnosis sessions described in the book, Zanfretta said they identified themselves bas the Dargos from the planet Titania) took his gun and fired five times (it was silent), which seemed to have explained the fact that his gun was found to have been fired that many times without him being able to recall who or what he’d fired at.

He was confronted by ten creatures that took him to be examined. They put a helmet on his head that served to translate, but it caused him great pain. When he asked why they were doing this to him, it was explained that they needed human guinea pigs. As the audience watched, he protested that he had a family and wanted to be left alone.

Zanfretta became a celebrity and experienced the problems that came with it, including having his mental health questioned. This caused him to regret having told his story. As for his mental health, his company, Val Bisagno, had him examined by a neurologist and he was declared “perfectly sane.” This helped his credibility, he was invited to appear on the national TV show Portobello (he was interviewed and regressed), and his story started to make international news.

Zanfretta’s superiors, out of concern for his safety and the safety of his fellow guards, put him on duty in a populated and well-lit area of Genoa, where he would patrol on a Vespa. Reluctantly, they gave him night duty, which he requested because the pay was better.

There were no episodes for over seven months until the night of July 30, 1979, when Zanfretta was on patrol. He went missing and was found by his fellow guards running in the dark on top of Mount Fasce. There was only one road up and other Val Bisagno guards who were patrolling it said he hadn’t been seen going up it, and this included a guard at the bottom of the road who stood in the middle of it when he was alerted Zanfretta was headed towards him after Zanfretta had failed to call in.

Another hypnosis session was arranged, and this time, at his request, Zanfretta was injected with sodium pentothal.  Once again, he had said he had been lifted up into the craft by a green light. According to him, he met Almoc, prince of the Dargos, who was slightly taller than the others. Almoc told him their planet was doomed and that they needed a place to start over and intended to build a domed city on Earth.

Like many contactees before him, Zanfretta said he was warned about the danger posed to Earth by our atomic weapons. He also said he was shown a clear sphere with a gold pyramid inside and that Almoc told him this was a means, much like a television, to become familiar with the Dargos. He went on to say that Almoc told him they would return “when the great cold comes,” and give the sphere to an American professor whose name sounded like “hanky.” The doctor who had administered the pentothal reportedly suggested Hynek, and Zanfretta is said to have agreed, although he did not know who Hynek (presumably J. Allen Hynek) was. Zanfretta then described hitting buttons on a nearby console until a hatch opened, whereupon he jumped out of the craft, which was fortunately only around ten feet above the ground. He said the creatures lowered his Vespa after him.

According to the account on the website, Zanfretta went missing again on December 2, 1979, while driving an Austin Mini. His four-man rescue team of two men each in two cars drove to the scene after spotting a UFO in the hills over Genoa. When they approached, two beams of light down came out of a large cloud, and both cars shut down. The men got out, and Lt. Cassiba shot at the beams, which seemed to have caused them to go out. One of the guards, Germano Zanardi, was reportedly so unnerved by the experience that he never recovered and shot himself in the head a few months later.

Zanfretta was found and was again hypnotically regressed. The story came out that when he was at a gas station in downtown Genoa, he heard a voice calling him and couldn’t resist walking towards it. It came from a man he described as slightly taller than him, with an egg-shaped head. He said he was wearing a checkered suit and had something made of steel instead of a shirt.

According to him, the man ordered him to drive into a cloud and he was taken up into a craft. There, the creatures gave him a tour where he saw tubes filled with blue liquid containing creatures that included a caveman and a frog-like being said to be an enemy of the Dargos. He was given the sphere and told to give it to Hynek, and he smashed it on the floor. He had the helmet forced on his head and was shown pictures he was told were of everyone on Earth that included their information. They said everyone would become subjects in their experiments and that they would return again with another sphere.

During the session Zanfretta reportedly said, “Where have you been? And what do you want to do in Spain? Why? But all together? That will scare people!” It is noted that a report came out of Spain the next day of a dentist driving off the road terrified and blinded by a UFO that had followed him for an hour. He also said that he was told that someone was firing at the ship.

Next week:  Intriguing evidence, more episodes, and the aftermath.