Case description
Luigi Rapuzzi, later known as the painter and science-fiction author L. R. Johannis, said he encountered an unusual object beside a nearly dry mountain stream in Friuli on August 14, 1947. In the retrospective account, he was walking below Col Gentile near Raveo when he noticed a reddish, lens-shaped object standing almost upright in a ravine. Two small figures nearby initially looked like children or shepherds.
Approaching, he described beings approximately three feet tall with greenish skin, oversized heads, protruding round yellow-green eyes with vertical pupils, long straight noses and narrow mouths. They wore dark blue-black outfits, close-fitting caps and prominent belts. Their hands allegedly had eight fingers arranged in opposing groups. These distinctive details differ markedly from a modern Grey image.
When he raised the arm holding his ice axe, one figure reportedly operated a belt device that released vapour. Rapuzzi said he fell partly immobilized, watched a figure examine his tool, and saw both return to the object. Its departure produced a strong rush of air. He later reported missing equipment, but no retrieved material established the claimed encounter.
The account’s publication trail reaches Clypeus in May 1964 and the Flying Saucer Review humanoid special issue in 1966, many years after the alleged event. His literary background and that delay are relevant provenance; neither alone proves a hoax or an encounter.
