David Grusch: 1933 UFO Crash Retrieval in Italy
All of David Grusch’s whistleblower claims were shocking, but none more than that the first UFO crash retrieval was in Magenta, Italy in 1933, and that Pope Pius XXII told the Americans about it at the end of the fascist regime. We’re looking into leaked documents that support this claim, and diving a little deeper into what both David Grusch and Lue Elizondo say about this case that predates Roswell by almost 15 years!
- David Grusch, June 2023: “1933 was the first recovery, in Europe, in Magenta, Italy. They recovered a partially intact vehicle. The Italian government moved it to a secure air base in Italy for the rest of the fascist regime until 1944-45, Pope Pius XII back channeled that, and told the Americans what the Italians had, and we ended up scooping it.”
- In an interview with Le Parisien, Grusch expanded on that: “In 1933, a bell-like craft, around ten meters in size, was recovered in Magenta, northern Italy. It was kept by Mussolini's government until 1944 when it was recovered by agents of the OSS.”
- Lue Elizondo, May 2021: “Roswell may not have been the first event. There's been some reporting internationally that there have been some crashed vehicles, and they were obtained by local authorities, and there was some scientific study done on them. I've personally seen some documentation that's very compelling from Italy, where they had a recovery of a vehicle… and after World War II, allegedly, parts of that vehicle were brought to the United States. …There is some documentation that has been validated, that was from Mussolini himself, and it's authentic, the documentation has been proven to be authentic, so certainly interesting.”
- The report he talks about is from around 2001, called “The Fascist UFO Files.”
- From 1996 to 1999, Italian journalist and Ufologist Roberto Pinotti received a series of documents (both photocopies and originals) from an anonymous source, which described a UFO crash near Milan in 1933, and another sighting in 1936. They also discussed a secret government UFO investigation called RS/33—the Special Research Cabinet of 1933—which was established by Mussolini, and run by Guglielmo Marconi.
- Pinotti and his partner Alfredo Lissoni were skeptical, and sat on the documents for a few years while they had them chemically tested and historically analyzed. Chemical composition of the ink and aging of the paper confirmed they were from the correct time period. And a historical analysis confirmed that the documents were consistent with genuine Fascist-era documents.
- There are three main groups of documents that tell the story. A series of telegraphs to the state news agency on how to report about the crashed vehicle. A set of instructions for the crash recovery. And a long letter about the sighting of a flying cigar in 1936.
- First, we have three government telegrams, marked “priority” and “most confidential”, sent by the Director of Special Affairs of the Stefani news agency in Milan, the regime’s new agency for fascist information and propaganda. These attempt to suppress news of an unidentified aircraft:
- Undated: “By superior order, it is arranged to deal with the following news spread by Stefani dispatch today. The aircraft mentioned above is recognized as meteor, repeat, meteor by the Brera astronomical observatory. Give the news minimal graphic relevance. No need for corrections.”
- June 13, 4pm: “By personal order of Il Duce, absolute silence is ordered regarding the alleged landing on national soil by an unknown aircraft. The same applies to today's Stefani dispatch and individual journalists. Maximum penalties for violators enforced by state security tribunal.”
- June 13, 5pm: “By personal order of Il Duce, immediate arrest is said to be made for the spread of news relating to the aircraft of unknown nature and origin mentioned in this morning’s Stefani dispatch. Any newspaper leads containing said information will be immediately recast. Maximum penalties for violators enforced by state security tribunal.”
- Next, there’s a letter describing the strategy to be followed after the craft had been recovered:
- “Notify the Governor.”
- “Arrange for immediate recovery of the aircraft.”
- “Immediately arrest all witnesses. Appoint special section RS/33 of the Gestapo.”
- “Address each report (with MAXIMUM SECRECY and PRECEDENCE ON ALL PRIORITIES) to the Central Meteorological Office, at the Sapienza University of Rome. Exclusive relevance: Cabinet RS/33.”
- “Prevent the dissemination of any news, especially in the press.”
- “For the purpose of the previous point, it is necessary to publish, from time to time, very short articles in which the phenomenon is reported to its authentic and unique celestial nature: meteor, shooting star, planet, luminous halo, iris, parelion etc.”
- “The transmission of the reports to the Air Force is subject to the prior favorable opinion of the RS/33 Cabinet authority whose decisions are final, up to the top hierarchy of Il Duce.”
- “Strict exclusion of any other scientific body from the collection and examination of available reports, including the Pontifical University.”
- Lastly, there’s a 1936 handwritten letter describing a UFO encounter:
- “Dear Valiberghi, It was observed in the morning. It was a metallic disc, polished and reflecting light, with a length of ten or twelve meters. Two fighter aircraft from a nearby air force base took off, but were not able to reach it even traveling at 130 Km/h.”
- “It didn’t emit any sound, which would lead one to consider an aerostat (balloon). But nobody knows of balloons that can fly faster than the wind. I know for sure that it was seen by other pilots.”
- “Then, after approximately an hour, it was seen as a sort of metallic tube, grey or slate in colour like a kind of aerial torpedo, with very clear windows and alternating white and red lights. Followed by two ‘hats’, like those used by priests. They were wide, round with a dome in the center, metallic and followed the torpedo without changing their relative positions.”
- At the bottom of the letter is a drawing of the crafts. The cigar looks kinda like a SpaceX booster, complete with a big rocket fairing. But the two following are totally the classic saucer look.
- “The Prefecture has opened an inquiry, but you can imagine that it will make little inroads and have a similar outcome to that of 1931. Il Duce has expressed his worries, because he says that if it was an English or French aircraft, his foreign policy would have to start all over again.”
- Grusch was interviewed by Roberto Pinotti in November 2023, and added more details to his claim:
- “Some of my interview subjects that I ultimately directed to the Inspector General, they did give me a briefing on all the US-involved recoveries that happened over the years. And the Mussolini case that, interestingly enough, is already out there in the public vernacular, thanks to your work. Uncovering that case, and the 1933 Magenta-area crash was one of the events that they talked about. And that was one that I submitted in my DoD prepublication review to be able to talk about publicly because I thought that was a very remarkable international case that would hopefully spur not just U.S. interest, but European interest.”
- “And so, what's interesting about that crash—and there’s some stuff I haven't stated publicly, but I did submit it for security review—but when it came down, when they went to recover it, it had an acorn or bell shape. But, what really happened there is they believe that the original craft was lenticular or saucer shaped because when it crashed, when they came to recover it, all the edges were broken off around the craft, and so it looked like a bell or an acorn. But really, it had additional characteristics that were destroyed when it landed.”
- “But Pope Pius XII was involved, and he sent a communique through the American OSS, the Office of Strategic Services. They were the intelligence agency of the U.S. during World War II. And it ended up going to FDR’s desk. But as far as I know, unless the records were destroyed, the Vatican and the Pope Pius XII section of the Vatican Secret Archives, there should be documented evidence. From what I was told, now these intel officers that briefed me on this, that had firsthand knowledge, they assumed that the Vatican still had those records and they weren't destroyed. And, of course, that was ultimately recovered at the end of the war, and went into U.S. possession after the war.”
- RS/33 is barely touched on in the documents I saw, but Pinotti implies there are more. And it’s possible he goes into them more in some of the Italian language materials I wasn’t able to read. What I can say is that Marconi was head of the Italian Royal Academy, so it’s not surprising he was put in charge. The other members were several prominent astronomers, scientists, and aeronautical engineers. I did find a reference saying that he never actually attended any RS/33 meetings, and always sent another astronomer in his place.
- The Daily Mail reported that an Italian resident in the area said he heard stories about the crash from his family. His great-grandfather was the mayor and head of the police force in a town about 30 miles from the crash site. “It was a second-hand story told to me by my father when I was a child in the early 1990s, but it matches the story of the crash. I was told a strange metal plane with no wings crashed somewhere between Vergiate and Magenta. I was told there was a big censorship around this crash. The fascist secret police were sent to the surrounding cities to keep people silent about it.”
- One odd detail that comes up in the UFO community when discussing the Magenta crash is the idea that bodies were recovered. In particular, “Nordic” bodies: Tall human-looking beings with white skin and long blonde hair.
- The story goes that because of these bodies, Mussolini assumed these were secret German craft. However, there’s no mention of bodies in any of the Pinotti documents. And, when asked if bodies were recovered from the 1933 crash, Grusch said: “I did ask that question of my briefers, and the answer was no. They don't recall any kind of biological material coming with it. It was just an artifact that they recovered. So, I'm not aware of any bodies, and they were not aware of any, either.”
References
- David Grusch: “1933 was the first recovery, in Magenta, Italy.”
- Lue Elizondo: “Roswell may not have been the first event.”
- Roberto Pinotti: The UFO Files of Mussolini
- Alfredo Lissoni: New Documents 'Will Revolutionize UFOlogy'!
- David Grusch: “In 1933, a bell-like craft, around ten meters in size, was recovered in Magenta.”
- David Grusch: “The craft had a bell shape after crashing, but was originally a saucer.”
- Reddit: Whistleblower David Grusch and the Italian UFO Crash of 1933
- Popular Mechanics: A Researcher Says the First UFO Really Crashed in Italy in 1933. And He Has Evidence.
- Liberation Times: All UFO Disclosure Roads Lead to Rome
- Daily Mail: Italian researcher shares extraordinary evidence files of world's 'first' UFO crash
- UAP Gerb: The 1933 Magenta, Italy UFO Crash
Episode 42, posted on