The Little Green Men

Midgets in the Mountains

Johannis' sketch of the humanoids.

One of the first occupant encounters of the modern UFO era occurred in Italy on August 14 1947, barely two months after Kenneth Arnold's famous saucer sighting. And in accordance with the old cliché, the aliens were indeed little, green, and male.

The witness, Professor Rapuzzi Johannis, was hiking through mountains near Villa Santina when he saw a red lens-shaped object perched on its edge in a rocky cleft. Two 3-ft-tall humanoids with "earthy green" skin were standing nearby.

The midgets had large heads with protruding purple eyes and narrow slit-like mouths. They wore translucent blue jumpsuits with bright red belts and collars. On their heads were tightly-fitting caps "like an alpinist's bonnet". They had eight talon-like fingers on each of their tiny hands

Communication Breakdown

Johannis was a published science fiction author. Was his CE3 report fact or fantasy?

"Who are you?" yelled Johannis at the little men, waving his alpine pick to attract their attention. Unfortunately, they seemed to misinterpret his gesture as one of hostility.

One of them touched its belt, which emitted a puff of vapour at the professor giving him a painful electric shock. He dropped his pick and collapsed to the ground in agony.

The beings strolled over and examined the pick at close hand. Taking it with them, they climbed aboard their saucer.

The craft rose into the air edgeways "like a gong", then rapidly shrunk until it had completely vanished. Johannis later found that all the aluminium objects in his backpack had disappeared.

Sources

Jacques Vallee: Dimensions, pp104-105.
Alan Baker: Encyclopedia of Alien Encounters, pp128-129.
Peter Brookesmith (Ed): UFOS: Where do They Come From?, p88.
Peter Brookesmith & Paul Devereux: UFOS and Ufology: The First 50 Years, pp33-34.
Albert Rosales Humanoid Database (online).