Flying Saucers Enliven 'Doodle Bug' Trial

Flying saucers whisked into the “doodlebug” confidence game trial under way in District Court.

Herman A. Flader, Denver industrialist, told of the flying saucers, little men three feet tall and the powers of the magnetic force around the earth.

By Al Nakkula Rocky Mountain News 11-17-1953

Flader is the complaining witness against Silas Newton and Leo GeBauer. They are accused of bilking Flader of $50,000 through the use of electric divining “doodlebugs” to locate oil.

The Aztec UFO Incident and The Fog of Time (1)

Origin Stories

Recently, colleague and noted researcher Curt Collins reached out and inquired about “a claim that the Aztec hoax was inspired by a joke newspaper story in the Aztec Independent Review by George Bawra.” [sic] Curt discovered a blurb (See below) in Garrett M. Graff's new book, "UFO: The Inside Story of the US Government's Search for Alien Life Here―and Out There," which precipitated the question. (For the record, the more common, long held precept for the origins of the Aztec UFO crash narrative is that the story was created out of

By Frank Warren The UFO Chronicles 1-31-2024

whole cloth by two purported conmen, i.e., Silas Newton and Leo GeBauer. This account was borne by then, off and on again newspaper reporter, J.P. Cahn. Given the national obsession with the then Flying Saucers, and after reading, Frank Scully's book, Behind The Flying Saucers, Cahn saw an opportunity to get his job back at the San Francisco Chronicle; he called his former boss, Scott Newhall at the Chronicle and said, "I'll guarantee you we have one of two things, we have the greatest story since the resurrection or the greatest hoax since the Cardiff Giant." Although the lure of the account in Frank Scully's bestselling book got Cahn his job back, in the aftermath, the Chronicle decided against publishing the hit piece. Later, Cahn sold his article to Ken Purdy, publisher of True Magazine).

Snippet from Garrett M. Graff's new book, "UFO: The Inside Story of the US Government's Search for Alien Life Here―and Out There"

Curt additionally cited, Jerome Clark’s piece in Omni magazine, in the Sept. 1988 issue and in referencing researcher Bill's Moore previous report on Aztec, he in part wrote:

"UFO researcher William Moore who has investigated the Aztec story dismissed the new allegations [By Bill Steinman in the book, "UFO Crash at Aztec, A Well Kept Secret"] as 'unsubstantiated conjecture.' And a reporter for the Daily Times [Debi Yeager] published in nearby Farmington says nobody in Aztec even remembers a UFO crash [*See article below]. 'Several years ago I got a call from a guy in California and that's the first time I ever heard the story', says the reporter. "I decided to check it out. No one knew anything about it, except George Bawra [Sic] who's now dead. At the time he was editor of the Aztec Independent Review. He told me he had written a tongue-in-cheek story about a UFO in the area. Apparently some people picked up the story as gospel."

He (Curt) went on to say that, "I've seen this repeated again and again" (as most of us who pay attention have).

The Farmington Daily Times article cited by Moore is seen below:

* Farmington Daily Times 1-17-1982

In the latter part of 1991, The International UFO Reporter published an in-depth article/report by researchers, William E. Jones and Rebecca D. Minshall concerning Aztec, and the assertions of Bill Steinman; although they didn’t travel to Aztec, they did contact some of the stated witnesses Steinman talked to and concluded the following:

“Neither the Scully book nor the Steinman book is persuasive. The critical information each presents is questionable. Everyone we contacted in Aztec, especially the older people who were adults in March of 1948, is certain that no crash ever took place. It is clear that the flying-saucer-crash story is part of Aztec's folklore but not its history.”

One of the witnesses that Jones & Minshall spoke to (also) brought up Bowra, and stated:

"... the crash story may have been started by a newspaper man she believes was named George Bower [sic]; he sometimes wrote partially true and sensational stories for the local paper to help boost circulation."

Official UFO Dec. 1975

Going back further to 1975, the magazine, Official UFO, published an article/report, by Mike McClelland, then an investigator for the Aerial Phenomenon Research Organization (APRO), as well as Project Coordinator for the Unidentified Flying Object Report and Information Center (UFORIC). The title of the article was, "The UFO Crash of 1948 was a Hoax."

McClelland's report/article was prompted by the revelations (concerning Aztec) of one Robert Spencer Carr, who was primarily known as "an American writer of science fiction and fantasy." Carr's revivification of the Aztec crash story, first mentioned on a radio broadcast on Oct. 11, 1974 to promote the upcoming Flying Saucer Symposium by PSI Conferences in Tampa, Florida "created a media sensation that lasted for months in print and broadcast news."

In regards to Bowra, McClelland wrote:

"... George Bowra who owned the Aztec newspaper in 1948. From my conversation with him, he impressed me as one who must have been a colorful individual. He recalled a tongue-in-cheek article he had written for the newspaper years ago describing his abduction by little green men from space."

Letters From Home

On the mind of readers at this point is, why not locate the original article(s) cited over the years? The short answer is various researchers and or interested parties have tried, myself and close colleagues included.

Several years ago with our first pass looking through the microfilm and or copies thereof the Aztec Independent Review for the issues published around 1948—we searched for any articles akin to the Aztec narrative, concerning flying saucers, crashes, aliens etc., we got zilch, bupkis, nada.

A breakthrough occurred when I interviewed George Bowra's son, Jim (RIP) back in 2013. When questioned about the alleged article, he stated:

"my father periodically wrote a tongue-in-cheek ... uhh, article ... about a boy, kinda of a hillbilly dumb kid named Warty, and he was writing to his grandmother. Occasionally it would be local politics and city government but usually it was just ... something. He wrote this one particularly ... Warty wrote this one about a flying saucer ..."

Armed with that information we took another dive into the microfilm, and with our boots on the ground colleague, B.M. Marshall–we stroke gold; we finally understood why the so-called article(s) were so elusive. As you can see (below), the piece(s) wasn't an article at all, it was a regular column, certainly tongue-in-cheek as described and first published in July of 1949.

The first mention of Flying Saucers specifically in Bowra's Letter From Home column was published in the March 24th, 1950 weekly issue of The Aztec Independent Review.

(This was not the first mention of Flying Saucers in the paper, more on that later).

The Aztec Independent Review March 24, 1950

Also in that issue was an editorial likewise by Bowra simply entitled, "Flying Saucers" (see below). The commentary cites the Flying Saucer (UFO) events which occurred for 3 days in neighboring Farmington the week prior, offering a circumspect if not derogatory demeanor to the happenings at that time. In contrast, the Farmington Daily Times felt the sightings merited, front page, headline news. The March 18th (1950) edition of the paper in large, caps, entitled their primary article, as “HUGE ‘SAUCER’ ARMADA JOLTS FARMINGTON.”

Farmington Daily Times March 18, 1950

The gist of Bowra’s editorial was continued in his other column, "Rips and Tears." (See below). In absorbing all three elements (the Letter From Home column; the editorial and the Rips and Tears column) of the that edition that addressed or mentioned Flying Saucers, it’s clear that the events of nearby Farmington are what instigated the focus on the Saucers (UFOs).

The Aztec Independent Review March 24, 1950

The Aztec Independent Review March 24, 1950

Although Bowra's fictional character Warty, in writing to Grandma in the Letter From Home column shown above spoke of saucers, it was in generalizations and not event specific. With the actual articles now in play and conjecture aside, methinks even the most ardent skeptic would agree it would be a stretch, to put it mildly that the aforementioned piece is what birthed the Aztec UFO crash narrative. However, like Flying Saucer/UFO sightings during that time, Warty wasn't done, he would broach the subect again in the May 5th, 1950 issue (of the Aztec Independent Review). This time, he reports a sighting (See below).

In contrast to the first mention of Flying Saucers in the column, Letter From Home, in where Warty (Bowra) spoke in broad strokes, here (right) albeit in the repeatedly described tongue-in-cheek manner, in this instance, published on the week of May 5th, 1950, Warty is facetiously reporting about a specific (fictional) Flying Saucer (UFO) event.

Although the first mention of George Bowra, in connection with Flying Saucers (UFOs) by an outside source (Desert Magazine) occurred in 1950 (more on that later), the most significant was in McClelland’s piece in December of 1975. Important to note, as stated previously, McClelland wrote:

“He [Bowra] recalled a tongue-in-cheek article he had written for the newspaper years ago describing his abduction by little green men from space."

For the record, beginning with his son, who also worked for the paper—nowhere has there been another report or reference to Bowra writing about “abductions” whimsical or no in the Aztec Independent Review, or anywhere else for that matter.

Conversely, abductions were brought to the American mainstream via “The UFO Incident, the 1975 American made-for-television biographical film starring James Earl Jones and Estelle Parsons based on the alleged 1961 alien abduction of Barney and Betty Hill.” The movie splashed across screens in October, and was the talk across kitchen tables from coast to coast. Bowra was 77 by the time McClelland spoke to him; the former never took Flying Saucers/UFOs seriously as his penscript demonstrates; I believe, given his age, then current media coverage of the TV movie and abductions, and through the fog of time—he conflated “abductions” with his previous writings re Flying Saucers via his pseudonym, Warty back in the day.

Conclusions

With the Sept. 29th issue of 1950, the title of Bowra’s column was changed to “Letter To Grandma” and by March of ’52 it was taken off the front page. Over time variations would appear, e.g., Letter From Grandma, Letters To Warty from Rimrock and Letters From Cousins. Warty (Bowra) would write again (Letter To Grandma) about Flying Saucers in the Nov. 9th, 1951 issue, recalling the mass sightings (Farmington Saucer Armada) of the year before and attributing the events to the “power of suggestion.”

As I replied to Curt regarding his inquiry, I wrote:

“Did George Bowra write a fictional account that describes what is known today as The Aztec Incident? No. Did he mention Flying Saucers which was an off and on again convo based on media attention? Yes, in his light-hearted letters to Grandma.”

Additionally, Franky Scully first wrote about “The Aztec Incident” in his column for Variety magazine on Oct. 12th 1949—months before Bowra would generally mention Flying Saucers; said article was basically an abstract of what would later become his bestselling book, Behind the Flying Saucers (Henry Holt and Company, 1950). Moreover, at the same time, while Scully was enlightening his readers, likewise Silas Newton was spilling the beans on the golf course.

Finally, it’s clear from reading Bowra’s penscript above—there’s nothing that resembles, the Aztec UFO narrative, crashed Flying Saucers, aliens or abductions. The one Flying Saucer/UFO specific event he cites in his fictional, whimsical account published in the May, 5th 1950 issue which described seeing a UFO through the back window of his “store building,” shooting at it, and then realizing it was only a reflection of a “swinging light globe.” Full stop.

See Also:

	Sixteen 'Little Bodies' Found in Spaceship Crash | The Aztec UFO Incident 71st Anniversary
	Robert Spencer Carr, The Aztec UFO Incident and Hangar 18
	Former Aztec Resident Recounts UFO Crash and The Roswell Connection

REPORT YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE

20 Questions About Flying Saucers (UFOs / UAP) For The Air Force - 1950

The recent announcement by the Air Force that its Operation Saucer had been closed failed in its purpose to put an official quietus on discussion of Flying Saucers [UFOs]. The announcement followed by 24 hours of the appearance in True Magazine of an article by Lt. Donald E. Keyhoe, entitled, "Flying Saucers Are Real." Lt. Keyhoe spoke in Buffalo and repeated his statements after the Air Force announcement had been issued. Among the columnists and commentators who have taken part in the discussion is Frank Scully, who writes a column entitled

By Frank Scully, Buffalo Evening News 9-9-1950

"Scully's Scrapbook." Mr. Scully scoffed at the Air Force announcement and listed 20 questions which he would like to ask the Air Force top command.

Subsequently, Mr. Scully said the questions were propounded in utmost seriousness, that whatever others might think, he saw no reason for treating the subject of Flying Saucers lightly. Mr. Scully's questions follow:

See Also:

	Hear Best Selling Author, Frank Scully Argue His Case for 'The Flying Saucers [UFOs]' | UFO CHRONICLE | VIDCAST | 1952
	Silas Newton Identified As Mysterious 'Dr X,' Flying Saucer Lecturer at Denver University
	Sixteen 'Little Bodies' Found in Spaceship Crash | The Aztec UFO Incident 71st Anniversary

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Frank Scully's 'Behind The Flying Saucers' Makes Best Seller's List, Picture Rights Discussed

Frank Scully's "Behind The Flying Saucers" is in a fifth printing and of Sunday (8) had moved into the big 10 of the New York Times and Herald Trib bestseller lists.

By Variety 10-11-1950

First serial rights have been sold in England to the Sunday Despatch, in France to France-Soir, and in Italy to Mondadori Editore, with Scandinavian, Spanish and or other rights to the British Empire have been sold to Gollancz of London.

[...]

See Also:

Hear Best Selling Author, Frank Scully Argue His Case for 'The Flying Saucers [UFOs]' | UFO CHRONICLE | VIDCAST | 1952

Sixteen 'Little Bodies' Found in Spaceship Crash | The Aztec UFO Incident 71st Anniversary

Fallen Discs Yield 34 'Venus Midgets'

REPORT YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE

Plane Towed 'Doodlebug' Hunts for Ore & Oil | 67th ANNIVERSARY of THE AZTEC UFO CRASH

- click on image(s) to enlarge -

By Oakland Tribune
6-27-1948

See Also:

Time Magazine Pays Tribute To 'Flying Saucer' Pundit - Silas Newton (1930) | 67th ANNIVERSARY of THE AZTEC UFO CRASH

Silas Newton is Innocent and Will Fight Charges, says Son| 67th ANNIVERSARY of THE AZTEC UFO CRASH

Scott & Suzanne Ramsey Discuss The Aztec UFO Crash with Mack Maloney

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ROSWELL UFO CRASH: New Evidence Concerning ‘Photographs’ of Alien Bodies Revealed!

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The Rumored “New Roswell Evidence”

We have received the following account of what Kevin Randle’s Dream Team has discovered, and which has been rumored for a while here and elsewhere.

The sender is a credible, reliable source, but that said, I can’t vouch for all that is indicated but do know that some of it is what I’ve heard also.

I’ve emended [sic] where needed:

By Anonymous
ufocon.blogspot.com
9-21-13

Copyright 2013, InterAmerica, Inc.
[Use of this material without permission will be met by a copyright infringement lawsuit]

      Kevin Randle’s sidekicks heard that a woman, while handling an estate deal in Texas, came across some Kodachrome slides stashed in the lid of an old trunk at the home of the deceased woman whose estate she was closing.

Passing the slides on to her brother, a businessman in Chicago, got the attention of Tom Carey of the Roswell Dream Team.

Mr. Carey notified his fellow team-members and they set out to determine if what the slides showed were in fact what they assumed them to be: bodies lying on gurneys, covered midway by army blankets, from the Roswell area in 1947.

The bodies were not quite human but not quite unearthly either.

Carey and his fellow members took the slides to a Chicago newspaper and also allowed Eastman Kodak experts to examine the slides.

Both entities agreed that the Kodachromes were from the 1947 era.

The photos were taken, sneakily, by the husband of the woman in whose house they were found.

He was a geologist on a field trip near Roswell in the summer of 1947. He and his fellow geologists came upon an Army mop-up of what seemed to be an accident.

The area was cordoned off and the geologists told not to interfere or get involved.

The geologist snapped a few pictures unbeknownst to the Army and secreted his camera away.

His name was Bernerd A. Ray and he eventually went to work for Silas Newton
of Aztec notoriety.

When he died, his wife put the slides in hiding for fear, apparently, of government reprisal.

Now that the slides have come forward, the Randle team has tried to get a media outfit to do something with them.

CNN was contacted but did not wish to go forward since the persons providing the slides were known Roswell advocates of the extraterrestrial persuasion, CNN thinking the slides might be a ruse to sell more Roswell stories.

Those who have seen the slides and bodies in them think the corpses are alien entities.

That may be disputed since there is no corroborating evidence to confirm that conclusion.

Where the slides are now is not known by this writer. Nor do I know what the Randle team is doing about the matter.

But this is part of what the Roswell team is working with and on.

Continue Reading . . .

See Also:

Details of Alleged Photographic Evidence Re Roswell UFO Crash Leaked To The Public!

Happy Days For 'Flying Saucer' Pundit - Silas Newton

Roswell Officer Speaks from the Grave: Taped Confession of ET Recovery Revealed

"[Colonel] Blanchard Then Told Lytle That An Alien Craft Had Crashed Near Roswell . . . Four Bodies Had Been Recovered"


CIA Veteran Claims Knowledge of Roswell-Alien Cover-up

UFO Crash at Aztec
The Roswell Connection

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Details of Alleged Photographic Evidence Re Roswell UFO Crash Leaked To The Public!

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Aztec is (really) Roswell

By Rich Reynolds
RRRGroup
5-20-13

      A recent discovery of material, thought to be linked to the Roswell incident, seems, indeed, to be so.

While the provenance of that material is being sought, evidence that it derives from the 1947 Roswell area is circumstantially solid.

Here’s the scenario, as we understand it…..

A group of geologists, working in an area north of Roswell, stumbled upon an Army mop-up of what appeared to be an accident.

An accident is inferred by the “evidence” gathered and extant – currently provided to news media and research facilities for their evaluation.

One of the geologists, despite being warned along with his colleagues, not to obtain any information from the accident site, did snap, surreptitiously, some photos of what the group had inadvertently come across.

The geologists were also cautioned not to discuss what they had seen.

The evidence remained hidden until, by happenstance, it was recovered during a legal matter, and subsequently proffered to members of Kevin Randle’s Dream team.

Following the scrutiny the evidence has been subject to, one finds that the “evidence” supports elements of the Aztec crashed-saucer story, recounted by Frank Scully in his 1950 book, Behind the Flying Saucers.

The geologist whose wife had squirreled away the evidence was a working intimate of Silas Newton, one of the Scully informants, who was, along with Leo Gebauer, ultimately discredited by machinations of the U.S. government and the U.S. Air Force.

To keep her husband from the Newton/GeBauer fate, the geologist’s wife kept his Roswell evidence hidden until its recent find after her death.

But how does Aztec become connected to Roswell?

While the Aztec story began, allegedly, at a lecture by an “unidentified” scientist at the University of Denver in March 1950, Frank Scully became privy to details of the Roswell crash, via Silas Newton and Leo GeBauer who had obtained information about the Roswell incident from intimates in the government with whom they worked in their oil companies and related research.

Scully, initially, was not given the location of the supposed saucer crash but received the location from Silas Newton who was told by Dr, Gee (Leo GeBauer) that the crashed saucer was near Aztec.

Passing on the Roswell information to Scully caused anxieties of an extreme kind to the government when its agencies found out that Scully had been given suppressed information about what happened near Roswell in 1947, but relocated to Aztec in 1948, to prevent the Roswell crash from becoming “unsecret.”

The government arranged for GeBauer and Newton to corrupt the information they had already provided to Scully.

Aztec had experienced a strange episode in 1948, one similar in scope to the Roswell incident but not well supported as Roswell had been.

Roswell had experienced a true saucer crash, with a recovery of bodies, while Aztec’s saucer and bodies were not clearly defined and its supporting evidence was evanescent.

The Air Force decided to mix, using GeBauer and Newton, the Roswell “facts” with the Aztec “non-facts.”

Should Scully’s book become grist for a national awareness that flying saucers were, indeed, craft of extraterrestrial visitors -- which it did – the content could be debunked easily, full of rumored information rather than actual information which was what Roswell had produced.

Roswell’s information was suppressed by all the hither-dither that has become the bulk of the Roswell myth.

Scully’s book was prepared to reopen the Roswell story so Scully’s venue was shifted to Aztec, where the information was iffy, at best.

The ploy did not work initially, and Scully’s book became a headliner.

The Air Force then had to rid the Scully oeuvre of its essential informants: GeBaurer and Newton, credible men at the time and well-connected.

A case of fraud was concocted against Scully’s confidants, and promoted by an expose in a book by San Francisco reporter, J.P. Cahn.

Newton and GeBauer were convicted of fraud, and Scully’s story was dismissed as a tale conceived to perpetuate the fraud.

Aztec was and is tainted by that fraud conviction and Roswell was not opened to new scrutiny as its renewal was stifled by its being wrapped into the Aztec story, and disguised thereby.

The story and evidence of alien bodies derives from Roswell and ended up in Aztec per Scully: Page 26 ff. (in the Popular Library paperback, 1951)

Metal remnants (debris) was intrinsic to Roswell but was inserted into the bogus Aztec scenario per Scully: pages 40/159 (in the Popular Library paperback, 1951)

Scully was, indeed, duped but not by Silas Newton and Leo GeBauer alone, but rather by a brilliant disinformation contrivance of the U.S. Air Force.

Yes, Scully was proffered material documenting a flying saucer crash, but that material pertained to Rowell.

Yes, his wife did see photos of unearthly bodies, but those photos came from the Roswell incident and will factor into the new Roswell probe.

Yes, something did happen near Aztec in 1948, but that something was prosaic and mundane by Roswell standards.

Aztec is a cover story, nothing more.

It’s Roswell where the “action” really took place, and the new evidence, when revealed, will bear that out.

Read Behind the Flying Saucers to really see what happened near Roswell in July 1947.

Continue Reading . . .

See Also:

Roswell Officer Speaks from the Grave: Taped Confession of ET Recovery Revealed

"[Colonel] Blanchard Then Told Lytle That An Alien Craft Had Crashed Near Roswell . . . Four Bodies Had Been Recovered"

CIA Veteran Claims Knowledge of Roswell-Alien Cover-up

UFO Crash at Aztec
The Roswell Connection

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The Aztec Incident - 63rd Anniversary | The 'Aztec Incident' Revisited - Pt II

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By Scott Ramsey
© 2005-2011

Skeptics

     The Aztec story has had mixed reviews over the years in the UFO community. Unfortunately it has earned its black eye until recently. In our final overview of Aztec, we need to collectively review the skeptical side of Aztec as well. Our in-depth research would not be complete or professional if we did not research the negative side of the Aztec story as well.

J.P. Cahn (pen name John Kenner) wrote the first negative article on Aztec. About two years after Frank Scully’s very successful book came out, Silas Newton and Leo Gebaur were in trouble in Civil Court in Denver, Colorado. Newton had originally approached Scully with the amazing "Aztec Story" and had introduced Scully to Dr. Gee. Almost overnight the Aztec Story and the credibility of Scully’s source was in question. the case stemmed from an inventor that felt that the means of locating oil, through a doodlebug instrument was not of "alien technology" as claimed by Newton, but from surplus "junk". This is where many skeptics leave the story. Most have never read the court papers in detail or what Scully wrote after the scandal.

First, the other investors were not allowed to testify on behalf of Silas Newton and Leo GeBauer. After all, wrote Scully, they were not upset with their oil investment.

Second, the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) has a file on Leo GeBauer that runs over 400 pages. To this date only about 200 pages have been released to the public. GeBauer, Newton, Scully, and a cast of many that played a role in the Aztec Story have long since passed away. GeBauer had no next of kin. So why 58 years later does the FBI refuse to release over 200 pages on Gebaur? Is it really in the interest of national security as they claim? . . .

More . . .

See Also:

The Aztec Incident - 63rd Anniversary | The 'Aztec Incident' Revisited - Pt I

VIDEO | Aztec 1948 UFO Crash - The Government Cover-Up


Tiny Men Flying Discs to Visit Us, Says Scientist (Silas M Newton)


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The Aztec Incident - 63rd Anniversary | The 'Aztec Incident' Revisited - Pt I

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By Scott Ramsey
© 2005-2011

Abstract:

     The landing and recovery of an extraterrestrial craft near Aztec, New Mexico has been a controversy for nearly 58 years within the UFO community.

The story as first reported by writer Frank Scully, appears in 1950 in his book Behind the Flying Saucers. This was the first hard covered book ever published on flying saucers for people wanting to know more about the subject that was relatively new to the American public.

This article will look at the original dates, witnesses, claims of technology, and people involved, to present to you the facts known to this point.

More . . .

See Part I

See Also:

VIDEO | Aztec 1948 UFO Crash - The Government Cover-Up

Details of the Aztec Incident are Revealed By Ufologist Scott Ramsey In Recent Interview on The Paracast

Tiny Men Flying Discs to Visit Us, Says Scientist (Silas M Newton)

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Manipulating the Crashed UFO Scene

By Nick Redfern
For The UFO Iconoclast(s)
6-2-09

Have UFOs crashed to earth?

Was Roswell "real"?

Have alien bodies been retrieved and autopsied?

Many people certainly believe so. Even I ("The Scourge Of Roswell") used to believe so.

And there's something else, too; something surprising: key elements of the official world want you to believe that UFOs have crashed. They're pleased you believe. They rub their hands together in secret glee as they congratulate themselves on a job well-done.

Yes: it's truly ironic that those same key elements may well be up to their collective necks in crashed UFO tales - but there's a possibility that none of them may have any basis in literal UFO reality whatsoever.

Instead, there is good evidence that the collective UFO research community may have been the unwitting victim of a huge con-trick; one designed to (a) hide classified military ops under a crashed UFO banner; and (b) control and manipulate a group of people (namely us) that the official world perceives as being (at times, at least) troublesome and a potential threat to national security.

So, with that said, where do we begin? Where else: the early years of the UFO, the 1940s.

Psychological Saucers
It’s worth noting (mainly because few have bothered to note it, or to understand and appreciate the significance of the matter) that one of the “Recommendations” of a lengthy Technical Report prepared by the Air Force’s flying saucer study, Project Grudge, way back in August 1949, states: “That Psychological Warfare Division and other governmental agencies interested in psychological warfare be informed of the results of this study.”

The Department of Defense’s official definition of psychological warfare is: “The planned use of propaganda and other psychological actions having the primary purpose of influencing the opinions, emotions, attitudes, and behavior of hostile foreign groups in such a way as to support the achievement of national objectives.”

As the above Grudge revelations show, way back when in the formative years of Ufology, certain players were looking to understand how the subject could be used psychologically.

Saucers and the CIA
A 1952 document from then-CIA director Walter B. Smith to the Director of the Psychological Strategy Board, titled “Flying Saucers,” states:

“I am today transmitting to the National Security Council a proposal in which it is concluded that the problems connected with unidentified flying objects appear to have implications for psychological warfare as well as for intelligence and operations. I suggest that we discuss at an early board meeting the possible offensive or defensive utilization of these phenomena for psychological warfare purposes.”

According to Gerald Haines, historian for the National Security Agency and the CIA, in the early 1950s, “The CIA…searched the Soviet press for UFO reports, but found none, causing the group to conclude that the absence of reports had to have been the result of deliberate Soviet Government policy. The group also envisioned the USSR’s possible use of UFOs as a psychological warfare tool. [My italics.] In addition, they worried that, if the US air warning system should be deliberately overloaded by UFO sightings, the Soviets might gain a surprise advantage in any nuclear attack. Because of the tense Cold War situation and increased Soviet capabilities, the CIA Study Group saw serious national security concerns in the flying saucer situation. The group believed that the Soviets could use UFO reports to touch off mass hysteria and panic in the United States. The group also believed that the Soviets might use UFO sightings to overload the US air warning system so that it could not distinguish real targets from phantom UFOs.”

Significantly, the CIA Study Group “did find that continued emphasis on UFO reporting might threaten ‘the orderly functioning’ of the government by clogging the channels of communication with irrelevant reports and by inducing ‘hysterical mass behavior’ harmful to constituted authority. The panel also worried that potential enemies contemplating an attack on the United States might exploit the UFO phenomena and use them to disrupt US air defenses.”

This, in essence, is the CIA’s official stance with respect to the UFO puzzle. The CIA was most concerned about the way in which the Soviets might exploit the UFO subject as a tool of psychological warfare and spread bogus UFO accounts to clog intelligence channels.

In other words, it was not UFOs per se that particularly interested or alarmed the CIA, but the way in which the subject itself could be manipulated for other, more novel purposes.

As we shall now see, it was during these formative years that the American intelligence community began to realize how it, too might make use of the crashed UFO mystery to further muddy the waters concerning the incidents in New Mexico in 1947.

And so it was that, in the late 1940s and early 1950s, several crashed UFO tales surfaced – all of which bore the hallmarks of official involvement, both in their creation and dissemination.

The Aztec Affair
Next to the so-called Roswell Incident of July 1947, certainly the most talked-about “UFO crash” of all is that which is alleged to have occurred in the vicinity of Aztec, New Mexico, in 1948.


According to information related to the author Frank Scully in the late 1940s, and subsequently published in his best-selling 1950 book, Behind the Flying Saucers, the wreckage of four alien spacecraft, and no fewer than 34 alien bodies, had been recovered by American authorities as a result of a number of separate incidents in 1947 and 1948, and were being studied under cover of the utmost secrecy at defense establishments in the United States.

Scully was willing to admit that the bulk of his information had come from two primary sources: Silas Mason Newton, who was described in a 1941 FBI report as a ‘wholly unethical businessman,’ and one ‘Dr. Gee’, the name given to protect eight scientists, all of whom had supposedly divulged various details of the crashes to Newton and Scully. According to Scully’s sources one such UFO was found in Hart Canyon, near the town of Aztec, in March 1948.

After the Aztec saucer had crashed, said Scully, it was found essentially intact by elements of the military that gained access to the object via a fractured porthole. Inside they found the bodies of no fewer than sixteen small, human-like creatures, all slightly charred and undoubtedly dead. The UFO was then dismantled and the bodies of the crew were transferred to Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio for study.

At the time of its release, Scully’s book caused a major sensation. In both 1952 and 1953, however, J. P. Cahn, a reporter who had previously worked for the San Francisco Chronicle, authored two detailed exposes, which cast serious doubt on the claims of Newton and ‘Dr. Gee’ – identified not as ‘eight scientists’ but as one Leo Gebauer, who had a background as equally dubious as that of Newton.

Yet, as the years have shown, the Aztec crashed UFO incident refuses to roll over and die – indeed it has now spawned a whole industry.

Even today, the Aztec story continues to perplex and intrigue: a fascinating piece of documentary evidence relative to the Aztec case surfaced in the late 1990s, thanks to the late investigative author Karl Pflock – and it is one that may ultimately shed more light on the psychological warfare angle of the crashed UFO mystery.

“In 1998, under curious circumstances,” stated Pflock, “I was made privy to a fascinating document about one of the most controversial cases of the Golden Age of Flying Saucers, the so-called Aztec crash of 1948. I had little more than passing interest in the case until 1998, when a source, who insists on complete anonymity, showed me a handwritten testament, set down by the key player in this amazing, often amusing, truth-is-stranger-than-fiction episode.

“[I]t seems that what I was shown was…something penned by sly old Silas Newton, but what can we say about the veracity of its content? After the Denver Post revealed he was Scientist X, Newton received two visitors at his Newton Oil Company office in Denver. These men claimed to be with a highly secret U.S. Government entity, which they refused to name. Were they Air Force OSI agents, who Newton hyped into something more mysterious? Newton writes, ‘They grilled me, tried to poke holes in my story. Had no trouble doing it and laughed in my face about the scientific mistakes I made. They never said so, but I could tell they were trying to find out if I really knew anything about flying saucers that had landed. Did not take those fellows long to decide I did not. But I sure knew they did.’”

Pflock expands further and the tale becomes decidedly intriguing:

“Newton’s visitors told him they knew he was pulling a scam and then gave him what may have been the surprise of his life. ‘Those fellows said they wanted me to keep it up, keep telling the flying saucer story and that they and the people they worked for would look out for me and for Leo. I could just go on doing what I always did and not worry about it.’”

Pflock asks:

“Did the U.S. Government or someone associated with it use Newton to discredit the idea of crashed flying saucers so a real captured saucer or saucers could be more easily kept under wraps? Was this actually nothing to do with real saucers but instead some sort of psychological warfare operation?” [My italics.]

Klondike and the Crown
And then there is Operation Klondike. Following the collapse of Nazi Germany, several of Hungary’s national treasures, including the Crown of St. Stephen, were handed over to the United States military for safekeeping. They were duly delivered, in the early 1950s, to Fort Knox in an elaborate operation code-named Klondike. The treasure was eventually returned to Hungary in 1978.

This would be just another story of political intrigue were it not for one strange fact: according to a memorandum in the State Department, the soldiers designated to guard the treasure were told that the boxes contained “the wings and engine of a flying saucer.”

This type of misinformation may well have been common. “Is it effective?” asked researcher William Moore. “Certainly in the Klondike situation it was, because unsubstantiated stories about parts of a flying saucer being stored at Fort Knox continue to be part of the UFO crash/retrieval rumor mill to this very day. How many other similar rumors have a similar origin is anybody's guess.”

The Spitzbergen Saucer That Wasn't
For many years, tales have circulated to the effect that in the early 1950’s a UFO crashed on the island of Spitzbergen, Norway, and, under circumstances similar to those that allegedly occurred at both Aztec and Roswell, was recovered along with its deceased alien crew.

On March 22, 1968, the State Department forwarded to a host of official bodies within the American intelligence community (including the CIA, the National Security Agency and Army Intelligence) a translation of a March 12, 1968 news article titled “Flying Saucers? They’re A Myth!” that had been written by Viillen Lyustiberg, science editor of the Novosti Press Agency in Russia and that included a small mention of the Spitzbergen allegations.

The relevant section of the article stated: “An abandoned silvery disc was found in the deep rock coal seams in Norwegian coal mines on Spitzbergen. It was pierced and marked by micrometeor impacts and bore all traces of having performed a long space voyage. It was sent for analysis to the Pentagon and disappeared there.”

The CIA, Army, State Department and NSA have all declassified their files pertaining to their apparent interest in Soviet news articles on UFOs in general and the Spitzbergen event in particular.

However, the NSA’s copy of the document differs significantly from those of its allied agencies. On the NSA’s copy, someone had circled the specific section of the article that referred to the Spitzbergen crash with the word “PLANT.”

This, again, would seem to suggest that this was a faked crashed UFO story, purposefully planted by persons currently unknown but known to the all-powerful National Security Agency.

Monkeys in the Desert?
And, finally, there is Kingman.

For years, interesting stories and accounts have circulated concerning the crash of a UFO at Kingman, Arizona in 1953 - and at the height of Operation Upshot-Knothole: a series of eleven nuclear test shots conducted over the border at the Nevada Test Site.

Perhaps a UFO really did crash at Kingman; however, I have uncovered files showing that in the same precise time-frame (and specifically as part of the Upshot-Knothole tests), the military was secretly test-flying drone aircraft in the area with monkeys on-board.

Might such a drone have crashed? Either by accident or design, was a crashed UFO story created to hide the security aspects of the affair?

While the image of an unmanned drone aircraft packed with a “crew” of monkeys flying across – and ultimately crashing in – the deserts of the southwest might sound laughable and bizarre in the extreme, official papers establishing that such tests were indeed undertaken have surfaced.

A document titled Early Cloud Penetration, dated January 27, 1956, and prepared by the Air Research and Development Command at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico, states in part:

“In the event of nuclear warfare the AF is confronted with two special problems. First is the hazard to flight crews who may be forced to fly through an atomic cloud. Second is the hazard to ground crews who maintain the aircraft after it has flown through the cloud…In the 1953 Upshot-Knothole tests, monkeys were used so that experiments could be conducted on larger animals nearer the size of man. QF-80 drone aircraft were used, their speed more nearly approximating that of current operational aircraft.”

And that's just the 1940s and 1950s.

In the near future, I will do a follow-up post to this one that offers similar revelations pertaining to later, alleged UFO crashes.

You may disagree with me, and that is of course your right to do so. However, it seems to me that - for years - the crashed UFO community has been well and truly played, manipulated, and even controlled.

The trick to overcoming this is to throw out your belief systems and start fresh, with no preconceived ideas about crashed UFOs, and no emotion-driven need to believe in wrecked saucers, dead aliens, underground cryogenic chambers filled with ET body-parts, and all the rest.

Do that, be totally unbiased, and you may find some surprising facts about the origins of certain crashed UFO events.

Whether this will please you, dismay you, or cause you to throw out all your files and walk away from the subject remains to be seen, of course...

Sources:

Project Grudge Technical Report No. 102-AC 49/15-100, Lt. H.W. Smith and Mr. G.W. Towles, Air Materiel Command, 1949.

JCS Pub 1, Joint Chiefs of Staff.

CIA’s Role in the Study of UFOs 1947-90, Gerald K. Haines, Studies in Intelligence, Vol. 1, No. 1, Central Intelligence Agency.

The Day After Aztec, Karl Pflock, self-published.

Behind the Flying Saucers, Frank Scully, Henry Holt Publishers, 1950.

UFO Crash at Aztec, William Steinman & Wendelle Stevens, UFO Photo Archives, 1987.

Far Out, No. 1, 1992.

Flying Saucers? They’re a Myth! Viillen Lyustiberg.

Air Research and Development Command, Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico, Early Cloud Penetration, 27 January 1956 .

* Special Thanks To Nick Redfern & Rich Reynolds

More . . .

See Also:

German Reports Saucer Manned By Little Men 10-10-1954

Silas Newton Claims Flying Saucer Men Will Land on Universe

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