Charles R. Pellegrino
Encyclopedia
One of his recent books (co-authored with Simcha Jacobovici
Simcha Jacobovici
Simcha Jacobovici is a Canadian film director, producer, free-lance journalist, and writer. He is a three-times Emmy winner for Outstanding Investigative Journalism....
) is The Jesus Family Tomb
The Jesus Family Tomb
The Jesus Family Tomb: The Discovery, the Investigation, and the Evidence That Could Change History is a controversial book by Simcha Jacobovici and Charles R. Pellegrino published in February 2007...
: The Discovery, the Investigation, and the Evidence That Could Change History (2007), a companion book to the Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav...
documentary on the same subject created in part by film director James Cameron
James Cameron
James Francis Cameron is a Canadian-American film director, film producer, screenwriter, editor, environmentalist and inventor...
.
Biography
Pellegrino, the son of John and Jane Pellegrino, was born in 1953 in New YorkNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
.
He obtained his bachelor's and master's degrees at Long Island University
Long Island University
Long Island University is a private, coeducational, nonsectarian institution of higher education in the U.S. state of New York.-History:...
in the mid-1970s and claims to have received a Ph.D. at Victoria University of Wellington
Victoria University of Wellington
Victoria University of Wellington was established in 1897 by Act of Parliament, and was a former constituent college of the University of New Zealand. It is particularly well known for its programmes in law, the humanities, and some scientific disciplines, but offers a broad range of other courses...
in New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
in 1982.
Pellegrino's website states that he has taught at Hofstra University
Hofstra University
Hofstra University is a private, nonsectarian institution of higher learning located in the Village of Hempstead, New York, United States, about east of New York City: less than an hour away by train or car...
and Adelphi University
Adelphi University
Adelphi University is a private, nonsectarian university located in Garden City, in Nassau County, New York, United States. It is the oldest institution of higher education on Long Island. For the sixth year, Adelphi University has been named a “Best Buy” in higher education by the Fiske Guide to...
's Center for Creative Arts. It also says he has served as a member of the Space Studies Institute
Space Studies Institute
Space Studies Institute is a non-profit organization that was founded in 1977 by the late Princeton University Professor Dr. Gerard K. O'Neill. The stated mission is to "open the energy and material resources of space for human benefit within our lifetime"...
and as a space-flight consultant at the Cradle of Aviation Museum
Cradle of Aviation Museum
The Cradle of Aviation Museum is an aerospace museum located in East Garden City, New York on Long Island to commemorate Long Island's part in the history of aviation. It is located on land once part of Mitchel Air Force Base which, together with nearby Roosevelt Field and other airfields on the...
.
He travelled with Robert Ballard
Robert Ballard
Robert Duane Ballard is a former United States Navy officer and a professor of oceanography at the University of Rhode Island who is most noted for his work in underwater archaeology. He is most famous for the discoveries of the wrecks of the RMS Titanic in 1985, the battleship Bismarck in 1989,...
to the Galapagos Rift after Ballard's discovery of the R.M.S. Titanic (in 1985).
Last Train from Hiroshima
In January 2010, Henry HoltHenry Holt and Company
Henry Holt and Company is an American book publishing company. One of the oldest publishers in the United States, it was founded in 1866 by Henry Holt and Frederick Leypoldt...
published Pellegrino's Last Train from Hiroshima, a look at the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima
Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
During the final stages of World War II in 1945, the United States conducted two atomic bombings against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the first on August 6, 1945, and the second on August 9, 1945. These two events are the only use of nuclear weapons in war to date.For six months...
from the vantage of survivors.
The New York Times initially praised the book as "sober and authoritative" and as a "firm and compelling synthesis of earlier memoirs and archival material". However, a month later the New York Times reported on allegedly false historical data found in Pellegrino's book. As The New York Times stated, Pelligrino's book:
… claims to reveal a secret accident with the atom bomb that killed one American and irradiated others and greatly reduced the weapon’s destructive power… There is just one problem. That section of the book and other technical details of the mission are based on the recollections of Joseph Fuoco, who is described as a last-minute substitute on one of the two observation planes that escorted the Enola Gay… But Mr. Fuoco… never flew on the bombing run, and he never substituted for James R. Corliss, the plane’s regular flight engineer, Mr. Corliss’s family says. They, along with angry ranks of scientists, historians and veterans, are denouncing the book and calling Mr. Fuoco an impostor."
In addition to the issues covered by The New York Times, veterans of the 509th Operations Group
509th Operations Group
The 509th Operations Group is the flying component of the United States Air Force 509th Bomb Wing , assigned to Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri. It is equipped with all 20 of the USAF's B-2 Spirit stealth bombers...
, the Air Force unit which dropped the atomic bombs, issued a detailed list of substantive problems with many of the book's claims about the bomb and the Air Force personnel involved.
The New York Times added, "Facing a national outcry and the Corliss family’s evidence, the author, Charles Pellegrino, now concedes that he was probably duped. . . . [H]e said he would rewrite sections of the book for paperback and foreign editions." Despite Pellegrino's claim in The New York Times that he had been "duped" by Fuoco, further investigation revealed that Pellegrino had repeatedly mentioned one of the book's most disputed claims (a supposed fatal accident at Tinian Island on 4 August 1945) before Mr. Fuoco had allegedly confided it for him.
On 1 March 2010, Henry Holt announced that it had halted publication of Last Train from Hiroshima as more questions arose about the veracity of the material. In particular, doubts arose about the existence of two westerners allegedly present in Hiroshima at the time of the bombing. The New York Times also reported, "[T]he publisher also had questions about Mr. Pellegrino’s doctorate," noting, "Mr. Pellegrino said that the Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand . . . had stripped him of his Ph.D. because of a disagreement over evolutionary theory. . . . But Barbara Marriott, the employment relations manager for Victoria said in an e-mail message that Mr. Pellegrino did not have a Ph.D. from the university. She said the university was investigating the situation." Days later the University stated that it had not issued a doctorate to Pellegrino.
Doctoral degree
Doubts about Pellegrino's doctoral degree were initially investigated by a blogBlog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
ger. When asked, Pellegrino's purported university responded to the blogger, "Although [Pellegrino] did do some PhD study, we can’t find any record of him actually completing or graduating." Working in collaboration with an Air Force
Air force
An air force, also known in some countries as an air army, is in the broadest sense, the national military organization that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army, navy or...
veterans organization, the blogger then contacted a host of media organizations with the information. After this initial revelation, university spokespersons reiterated to the Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
, The Weekly Standard
The Weekly Standard
The Weekly Standard is an American neoconservative opinion magazine published 48 times per year. Its founding publisher, News Corporation, debuted the title September 18, 1995. Currently edited by founder William Kristol and Fred Barnes, the Standard has been described as a "redoubt of...
, and The New York Times that Mr. Pellegrino did not have a Ph.D. from Victoria University.
In response, Mr. Pellegrino stated that the university had "stripped him of his Ph.D. because of a disagreement over evolutionary theory". The university told The New York Times and other news outlets that they were conducting an investigation into the matter. On 5 March, The New York Times stated:
In an e-mailed statement, Professor Pat Walsh, vice chancellor of Victoria University of Wellington, confirmed that Mr. Pellegrino had been a Ph.D. student in the 1980s.
“He submitted a thesis which in the unanimous opinion of the examiners was not of a sufficient standard for a Ph.D. to be awarded,” Mr. Walsh said. “Following complaints from Pellegrino, an investigation was carried out by the University. In 1986, Pellegrino appealed to Her Majesty the Queen. The case was then considered by the Governor-General who disallowed the appeal. Accordingly, Pellegrino was never awarded a Ph.D. from Victoria and therefore could not have had it stripped from him or reinstated at a later date.”
Non-fiction
- The Last Train from Hiroshima: The Survivors Look BackThe Last Train From HiroshimaThe Last Train From Hiroshima: The Survivors Look Back is a book by American author Charles R. Pellegrino and published on January 19, 2010 by Henry Holt and Company that documents life in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the time immediately preceding, during and following the aftermath of the atomic...
(Henry HoltHenry HoltHenry Holt , was a book publisher and author.Henry Holt was born in Baltimore, Maryland on January 3, 1840.He graduated from Yale in 1862....
, 2010) - The Jesus Family Tomb: The Discovery, the Investigation, and the Evidence That Could Change HistoryThe Jesus Family TombThe Jesus Family Tomb: The Discovery, the Investigation, and the Evidence That Could Change History is a controversial book by Simcha Jacobovici and Charles R. Pellegrino published in February 2007...
(with Simcha JacoboviciSimcha JacoboviciSimcha Jacobovici is a Canadian film director, producer, free-lance journalist, and writer. He is a three-times Emmy winner for Outstanding Investigative Journalism....
, 2007) - Ghosts of Vesuvius: A New Look at the Last Days of Pompeii, How Towers Fall, and Other Strange Connections (2004)
- Ghosts of the Titanic (2000)
- Return to Sodom and Gomorrah: Bible Stories from Archaeologists (1994)
- Unearthing Atlantis: An Archaeological Odyssey (1991)
- Her Name, Titanic: Untold Story of the Sinking and Finding of the Unsinkable Ship (1988)
- Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: The Hidden Epidemic (with Jesse A. Stoff, 1988)
- Chariots for Apollo: The Untold Story Behind the Race to the Moon (with Joshua Stoff, 1985)
- Time Gate: Hurtling Backward Through History (1983)
- Darwin's Universe: Origins and Crises in the History of Life (with Jesse A. Stoff, 1983)
- Interstellar Travel and Communication (with James Powell and Isaac Asimov, et al., 1986)
Fiction
- Dyson Sphere (with George Zebrowski, 1999)
- Dust (1998)
- The Killing StarThe Killing StarThe Killing Star is a hard science fiction novel by Charles R. Pellegrino and George Zebrowski, published in April, 1995. It covers several familiar speculative fiction ideas such as sublight interstellar travel, genetic cloning, virtual reality, advanced robotics, alien contact, and interstellar...
(with George Zebrowski, 1995) - Flying to Valhalla (1993)
- The Fallen Sky (1982)
Filmography
- Lost Civilizations: Aegean - Legacy of Atlantis - Time-LifeTime-LifeTime–Life is a creator and direct marketer of books, music, video/DVD, and multimedia products. Its products are sold throughout North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia through television, print, retail, the Internet, telemarketing, and direct sales....
/ NBCNBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
(1995).
- Re-released on October 1, 2002 as part of a 4-DVD set entitled Time Life's Lost Civilizations.
- Ghosts of the AbyssGhosts of the AbyssGhosts of the Abyss is a 2003 documentary film released by Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media. It was Disney's first film produced in 3-D and was directed by Academy Award winning filmmaker James Cameron after his Oscar winning film Titanic...
. With James CameronJames CameronJames Francis Cameron is a Canadian-American film director, film producer, screenwriter, editor, environmentalist and inventor...
(2003). - Naked ScienceNaked ScienceNaked Science is an American documentary television series that premiered in 2004 on the National Geographic Channel. The program features various subjects related to science and technology.-External links: ***...
: AtlantisAtlantisAtlantis is a legendary island first mentioned in Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias, written about 360 BC....
- National Geographic ChannelNational Geographic ChannelNational Geographic Channel, also commercially abbreviated and trademarked as Nat Geo, is a subscription television channel that airs non-fiction television programs produced by the National Geographic Society. Like History and the Discovery Channel, the channel features documentaries with factual...
(2004). - Aliens of the DeepAliens of the DeepAliens of the Deep is a 2005 documentary film, directed in part by James Cameron alongside fellow cameraman Steven Quale, who would later go on to direct Final Destination 5 six years later, and filmed in the IMAX 3D format. It was produced by Walden Media and Walt Disney Pictures...
. With James CameronJames CameronJames Francis Cameron is a Canadian-American film director, film producer, screenwriter, editor, environmentalist and inventor...
(2005). - The Naked ArchaeologistThe Naked ArchaeologistThe Naked Archaeologist is a television show produced for VisionTV in Canada and History International in the US that is hosted and prepared by the Emmy Award–winning journalist Simcha Jacobovici together with Avri Gilad...
: JoshuaJoshuaJoshua , is a minor figure in the Torah, being one of the spies for Israel and in few passages as Moses's assistant. He turns to be the central character in the Hebrew Bible's Book of Joshua...
- History Channel. Hosted by Simcha JacoboviciSimcha JacoboviciSimcha Jacobovici is a Canadian film director, producer, free-lance journalist, and writer. He is a three-times Emmy winner for Outstanding Investigative Journalism....
(2006). - American Vesuvius - History Channel (2006).
- Secrets of the Bible - National Geographic ChannelNational Geographic ChannelNational Geographic Channel, also commercially abbreviated and trademarked as Nat Geo, is a subscription television channel that airs non-fiction television programs produced by the National Geographic Society. Like History and the Discovery Channel, the channel features documentaries with factual...
(2006). - The Exodus DecodedExodus DecodedThe Exodus Decoded is a 2006 History Channel documentary created by Israeli-Canadian filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici and the producer/director James Cameron. The documentary explores evidence for the Biblical account of the Exodus...
- History Channel. With Simcha JacoboviciSimcha JacoboviciSimcha Jacobovici is a Canadian film director, producer, free-lance journalist, and writer. He is a three-times Emmy winner for Outstanding Investigative Journalism....
and James CameronJames CameronJames Francis Cameron is a Canadian-American film director, film producer, screenwriter, editor, environmentalist and inventor...
(2006). - The Lost Tomb of JesusThe Lost Tomb of JesusThe Lost Tomb of Jesus is a documentary co-produced and first broadcast on the Discovery Channel and Vision TV in Canada on March 4, 2007, covering the discovery of the Talpiot Tomb. It was directed by Canadian documentary and film maker Simcha Jacobovici and produced by Felix Golubev and Ric...
- Discovery ChannelDiscovery ChannelDiscovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav...
. With Simcha JacoboviciSimcha JacoboviciSimcha Jacobovici is a Canadian film director, producer, free-lance journalist, and writer. He is a three-times Emmy winner for Outstanding Investigative Journalism....
(2007). - Three Ground Zeros, A Thousand Paper Cranes (2008)
- A Jewish Home in Pompeii (History Channel, 2009)
- The Last Train From Hiroshima (Japan TV, 2009)
- Ghosts of the Abyss