Earhart's Electra: Eyewitnesses To What Really Happened
A Documentary project in Los Angeles, CA by Rich Martini ·
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Update #10: Running North and South. Low on Fuel.
Posted on September 6
Here we are at the finish line.. and I can't thank my Kickstarters enough to help me visualize this process. I'm speaking to a couple of people about how to finance the whole shebang, as well as considering revisiting the structure of financing - one piece at a time!!!
On July 3rd, 1937, Amelia left Lae, New Guinea - she flew in the dark, through the night to get to Howland. According to Liz Smith, Earhart fan and filmmaker, her new DATE LINE THEORY
put the Electra 200 miles NW of where she was supposed to be. For those of you who are tighar.com fans, please refer to the notebook published on their site by the young Ham Radio operator who heard Amelia's voice over the radio - it's not in the transcript - but it's clearly on the page. She's written in a margin "225 NW" - if she was 225 NW of where Liz Smith's new theory put her - that would be on MILI ATOLL.
As revealed in Elgen Long's book "The Mystery Solved" and spoken of by Amelia herself in "The Last Flight" she didn't speak Morse Code. According to Elgen, 90% of the communications to her where in Morse Code - in fact the only time they communicated is when they asked her to transmit the letter A. Even Amelia could do that. But little else.
So Liz Smith's theory, which makes sense to me, puts her 200 miles closer to Mili Atoll, where numerous Islanders saw the Electra crash. That means she'd have to fly that final 200 miles on whatever gas she had left, and probably a lot of fumes. All I know is, I have tracked down NUMEROUS EYEWITNESSES who saw the plane transported to Majuro, to Jaluit aboard the Koshu Maru, and to Saipan where it was housed until it was found on June 19th 1944 by US MARINES.
Some people have suggested that these Marines are lying. I mean really. WWII veterans trying to gain a little spotlight time for what reason? and I dare anyone to tell a Marine he's lying. Kind of a stupid suggestion, if you ask me. They were told WE HAVE FOUND AMELIA EARHART'S AIRPLANE (even via a decoded message which I have the man who decoded that message) and later WE ARE GOING TO DESTROY AMELIA EARHART'S PLANE - and more than one Marine watched it torched by US soldiers. I didn't ask why. Because that would be conjecture. It's up to me to find out why. All I asked was "What did you see?" One of my interviewees said "I'll never forget it. I remember it like it was yesterday." That's what Marines do. Fight like hell, and live to tell the truth.
So where is the plane? I've gotten these Marines to pinpoint where they saw the plane destroyed - and where on the runway it was pushed to, and buried under dirt. JPAC could find it in a heartbeat - made out of aluminum, you can burn the material, but you can't make it disappear. And there weren't many aluminum planes that landed on Aslito airfield.
So again, thanks to all you Kickstarters for pushing me in the right direction, and I will bug you at a future date when I figure out how to break this process into manageable bites. all the best, your intrepid explorer, Rich
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This project reached the deadline without achieving its funding goal on September 11.
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Richard Martini is an award winning film director, screenwriter and documentarian. His first documentary "Special Olympians" won the 1980 Mexico City Film Fest. Out of USC film school, he worked for writer/director Robert Towne ("Chinatown,") wrote the Charlie Sheen comedy “Three For the Road.” His wrote/directed "You Can’t Hurry Love" (Bridget Fonda), "Limit Up," with Nancy Allen, "Point of Betrayal," with Rod Taylor. He directed and co-wrote "Cannes Man" starring Seymour Cassel, appearances by Johnny Depp and many other Cannes celebrities. He wrote and directed the Dogme 95 film "Camera – Dogme #15," which premiered in Delhi, India in 2001. His documentary "Tibetan Refugee" features recent arrivals in India, "White City/Windy City” about Chicago/Casablanca's Sister Cities program and "Journey Into Tibet" documents Robert Thurman's sacred journey across Tibet. He wrote and produced a Bollywood film “My Bollywood Bride” starring Jason Lewis. Recently he worked on the feature films “Amelia” and “Salt” for Phillip Noyce as a "digital media curator."
He has taught film directing at Loyola Marymount University, the Maine Media Workshops and the John Felice Rome Center. He's married and has two children, lives in Santa Monica, California.
