Zanfretta UFO incident
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🛸 Case
Contents 4
| Type | Case |
|---|---|
| Also known as | Pier Fortunato Zanfretta, Zanfretta |
The Zanfretta UFO incident began on 6 December 1978, when Pier Fortunato Zanfretta, a 26-year-old night security guard near Torriglia, in the hills above Genoa, Italy, radioed that he was being confronted by beings who were "not men". He later described, under hypnosis, being abducted, and claimed 11 abductions up to 1981. It is the most documented abduction claim in Italy.[1]
The first encounter
On patrol at about 11:30 p.m., Zanfretta saw lights in the garden of a villa and, thinking it was being burgled, went in. He said he saw a red oval object more than ten metres across and, turning round, met beings about three metres tall with wrinkled skin, yellow triangular eyes and claws. His supervisor heard him scream that they were not men, before contact was lost. Colleagues found him unconscious and in shock.[1]
The Carabinieri investigated and collected 52 reports of strange events in the area, and found a semicircular patch of flattened grass in the villa's garden.[1] The story became a national sensation after Zanfretta appeared on the television show Portobello.[1]
Hypnosis and further claims
On 23 December 1978 a medical hypnotist hypnotised Zanfretta in front of journalists and ufologists. He described being taken into a brightly lit room aboard the spacecraft and subjected to painful experiments by green beings with triangular yellow eyes who said they came from "the third galaxy".[1] After a second disappearance on 27 December, he was found in shock near his car on a rainy night with apparently dry clothes. A neurologist found no signs of mental disturbance.[1] He also claimed to have been given an alien artefact, but never produced it.[1]
Skeptical view
Skeptics accepted that Zanfretta was sincere but argued that the hypnosis had been carried out without precautions and could have created false memories. They noted that the aliens' name, "Dargos", resembled that of a villain in the cartoon Grendizer, popular in Italy in 1978. The flattened grass matched where the villa's owners tethered their horse, the dry clothes fitted his having stayed in the car, and the "giant footprints" were puddles.[1]
References
- Zanfretta UFO Incident — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
This page was last edited on 31 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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