The Zanfretta Case
A night watchman said he met a tall, ridged giant by a country house above Genoa, and reported more meetings over the following year.
What was reported
Pier Fortunato Zanfretta was a private security guard. On the night of 6 December 1978, checking a house at Marzano, in the hills near Torriglia, he radioed that his car had died and that he'd seen strange lights. He then said he'd come face to face with a huge figure about 3 metres tall, with ridged green skin, before it vanished in a blaze of light.
Colleagues found him badly shaken. Over the next year he reported several more encounters and, under hypnosis, described being taken aboard a craft.
Explanations offered
Doctors and investigators judged him sincere, and he wasn't found to have a mental illness. Sceptics suggest hallucination, or false memories built up under hypnosis, which can produce detailed accounts of things that never happened. No one else saw the figure.
- When
- 6 December 1978
- Where
- Marzano, near Torriglia, Genoa, Italy
- Witnesses
- Fortunato Zanfretta, and colleagues who found him
- Status
- Unconfirmed
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.