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1933 · Magenta, Lombardy, Italy

The Magenta crash retrieval

Sourced, unconfirmed
Strength D · 4/10 · 1 independent
Evidence 1/4 · Witnesses 2/3 · Backing 1/3

The story rests on anonymously sent documents and Grusch's secondhand account from unnamed program sources.

Plausibility Moderate
Score 8 · 6 factors for, 1 against

Anonymous Fascist-era documents whose paper and ink test as period-correct, plus Grusch's secondhand account and Elizondo's statement that he saw validated documentation from Mussolini.

See the factors ↓

Unresolved
WhenJune 13, 1933
WhereMagenta, Lombardy, Italy
Backing1 independent
Witnesses1 named

Italian researchers say a metallic disc came down near Magenta, west of Milan, more than a decade before Roswell. According to documents that surfaced in the 1990s, Mussolini's government created a secret study group, the Gabinetto RS/33, reportedly placed under Guglielmo Marconi, to examine the craft. The story goes that the wreck was quietly handed to the United States as the war ended, which would make it the first entry in America's crash-retrieval archive.

Evidence, in date order (1)

  1. 2023David Gruschwitness
    Said publicly that Italy recovered a craft in 1933 that passed to the U.S. NewsNation: the UFO whistleblower speaks

How plausible · Moderate

Anonymous Fascist-era documents whose paper and ink test as period-correct, plus Grusch's secondhand account and Elizondo's statement that he saw validated documentation from Mussolini.

  • ●●
    Independent convergence Grusch named Italy 1933; Elizondo says he saw validated documents.
  • ●●
    Checkable details check out Paper and ink tested; Tommaso David and the June 1933 weather reports are real.
  • ●●
    Fits secrecy practice A secret study group and meteor cover stories in the telegrams.
  • ●○
    Access Grusch's sources had program access; the documents' sender is anonymous.
  • ●○
    No gain sought Pinotti published but the sender sought nothing.
  • ●○
    Consistent over time The story has held since 1996.
Against
  • −
    Lone source, no corroboration One anonymous document set.

Plausibility weighs how well an account fits where secrecy hides the documents by design, so missing records never count against it. Strength measures what is documented. Assessed 2026-10-24.

On the record

  • In 2023 David Grusch said publicly that Italy recovered a craft in 1933 and that it passed to the U.S. via the Vatican and the OSS in 1944–45.Grusch goes public
  • Pinotti's forensic test of the paper and ink (period-correct).
  • June 1933 newspaper reports of lightning and hail at Magenta.

Claims

Fascist-era RS/33 documents and telegrams, sent anonymously to ufologist Roberto Pinotti in 1996.The RS/33 telegrams and recovery protocol (Magenta, 1933)anonymousSourced, unconfirmedRoberto Pinotti
Marconi's personal involvement in studying the craft.The RS/33 telegrams and recovery protocol (Magenta, 1933)anonymousSourced, unconfirmedItalian ufologists
The craft becoming the seed of the U.S. 'legacy program'.secondhandSourced, unconfirmedDavid Grusch
Telegram 1 (13 Jun 1933): "absolute silence is ordered on the presumed landing of an unknown aircraft". Telegram 2 (16:00): it "has been recognized as a meteor by the Brera observatory". Telegram 3 (17:07): stop circulation of the news.The RS/33 telegrams and recovery protocol (Magenta, 1933)anonymousSourced, unconfirmedStefani telegrams (Pinotti set)
A nine-step RS/33 protocol orders the craft recovered, witnesses arrested, reports to RS/33 only, meteor stories published, other scientists excluded and costs hidden in the Royal Academy budget.The RS/33 telegrams and recovery protocol (Magenta, 1933)The 1933 Magenta, Italy UFO CrashanonymousSourced, unconfirmedRS/33 protocol (Pinotti set)
Pinotti had the paper and ink tested and found them period-correct.The RS/33 telegrams and recovery protocol (Magenta, 1933)The 1933 Magenta, Italy UFO CrashfirsthandSourced, unconfirmedRoberto Pinotti

Where

Magenta, Lombardy, Italy
45.5°N 8.9°E

In The picture

The crashes and the keepersThe first recovery may have come in Italy: a disc at Magenta in 1933, studied under Marconi and passed to the U.S. through the Vatican and the OSS, according to Grusch. Then came Roswell, announced as a 'flying disc' and retracted within a day. In 1950 an FBI memo to J. Edgar Hoover passed on a report of three recove…
1 of 11Next in Grusch & crash retrievals ›Roswell

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