History's Greatest Mysteries: ROSWELL SECRETS Revealed in Eyewitness Journal (Part 2) | History

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114 segments

Investigator Ben Smith heads to the office of handwriting expert Jennifer Nasso, who has
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spent nearly a month doing a forensic examination of the journal to find out if it is genuine
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or a fake.
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With him is Jesse Marcel's grandson, who believes the journal may contain the intelligence
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officer's coded secrets about what really happened at Roswell.
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It's fascinating and potentially helpful to solving, you know, for me, the larger story
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about the Roswell incident.
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I just can't imagine he wouldn't leave some kind of evidence, some writings of some kind
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about what was a very, very important event.
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Right.
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This might be that piece of the puzzle.
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Jennifer?
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Hi.
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Hey.
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Nice to see you again.
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Nice to see you.
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This is Jesse.
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Hi, Jesse.
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Jennifer Nasso, nice to meet you.
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Yeah, very nice to meet you.
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Follow me.
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I'll show you what I've been doing.
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Great.
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So, I looked at the writing inclines of every passage in the journal.
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And I'll show you under magnification, you can see a little bit better image of the ink
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line.
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This is consistent with non-ballpoint pen ink.
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Oh, okay.
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And the way I can tell is you can see the ink line, how the ink kind of bleeds into the
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paper fibers.
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Sure.
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Whereas in ballpoint pen, the pen ink is more viscous.
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And so it kind of sits a little bit more on top of the paper.
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Here is an example of ballpoint pen ink.
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And the characteristics commonly seen with ballpoint pen ink is you don't see that ink
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bleed into the paper and kind of sits more on top and has a sheen to it.
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Okay.
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And on curvatures, you see what we call burst striations that move from inside to outside on
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a curve.
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So, when I'm seeing throughout the documents that the entirety of the document is created
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with that non-ballpoint pen ink.
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Okay.
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And it's consistent with the time period which this document is for to be created.
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Yes.
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The next thing I looked at was the paper itself and what I'm looking for are optical bright
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nerves.
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Okay.
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Optical bright nerves are added in the paper manufacturing process.
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And it's to make the paper look nice and bright.
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Sure.
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So, the way to look for optical bright nerves is to look under UV radiation.
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And what should happen if it contains optical bright nerves is that the paper should
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move an asset to glow under UV.
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Here I'll put the journal in so you can see.
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And just to give you a comparison, I'll put a document which I know contains optical bright
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nerves under, right on top.
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Wow.
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So that technology began in around 1950.
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Correct.
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Well, that makes sense because I think the last date that I saw in the journal was like
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1948.
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So, professional opinion and the evidence showing that it was created before 1950 anyway.
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Yes.
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It is consistent with documents that were produced during that time period.
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Right.
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Okay.
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So, did you find anything like a watermark that might also provide a clues about the time
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period?
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Right.
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So, there is no logos or insignia on either cover or in the pages which would indicate the
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company that manufactured this document.
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However, when I looked with transmitted light shining through the document, there is a watermark
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present on the document.
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In looking at...
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Oh, and then I see it.
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You can see the watermark.
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And on the top, looking through several pages and being able to piece it together, the
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top actually says Juniata, J-U-N-I-A-T-A.
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So, curiosity got the better of me.
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Okay.
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And a quick internet search in fields that Juniata is a university in Pennsylvania.
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Interesting.
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I was here at my grandfather went to intelligence school.
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In Pennsylvania?
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Went to intelligence school in Pennsylvania.
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He was actually a member in the very first class of the very first intelligence school.
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Oh, really?
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When he finished that class, he turned around and they had him teach that class to...
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Oh, I teach me that.
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And again, it was written the same area where this paper came from.
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And that was in what year?
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1940...
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It had been 1941, 1942, so...
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Yeah.
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It was after the war and I started it.
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Exactly.
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Yeah.
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He joined really, really right after Pearl Harbor.
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So, to sum up, this document does appear to be consistent with the time period with which
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it's for the order to be written.
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It's half the battle right there.
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So I did a hand-write comparison with the journal and the known specimens I had for
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Jesse Marcel.
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Now, I will say that in slipping through the journals, the handwriting did appear to be
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freely and naturally executed.
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It does not appear to be deliberate or hesitant in its execution.
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There is one feature that I'll point out and that is the capital letter M where it is
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written almost like three sevens attached.
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So this is in the printed section.
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This M does appear in the cursive section from time to time.
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Oh, it's just like it.
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It is stunning news.
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The cursive script and the print were written by the same person.
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The journal is genuine.
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