Debunked! The FBI alien bodies memo – A case study in the reinvention of the wheel

Introduction

(On the plus side, this thread contains images of illuminating Air Force documents which I don’t think any UFO website has ever published in connection with the FBI memo discussed in this thread. On the negative side, I’m well aware of the fact that there – and, to the extent that my very limited free time permits, I have participated in – numerous threads in the last week about the FBI memo, including the ones entitled “ "Just Released" The memo that 'proves aliens landed at Roswell”, “Disclosure is coming people....” and “Aliens found in released FBI docs”. I hope my fellow members of ATS will excuse my starting yet another thread about that memo. Frankly, I’m completely fed up of reading complete nonsense and addressing these issues on an ad hoc basis in multiple threads so wanted to start from scratch and deal with things in a relatively comprehensive and structured manner.)



For quite a few years, I’ve been frustrated with the considerable amount of absolute nonsense written about issues relating to UFOs (not just online but also in the mainstream media).

That frustration has reached new heights during the last week.

With very limited spare time, I’ve been fighting a losing battle in multiple online discussions to try to point out a few basic facts about the numerous recent misleading media articles and online posts about a memo that has (allegedly) just been released by the FBI that (allegedly) confirms that alien bodies were recovered at Roswell.



The basic points I’ve been making are that:

(1) The memo is NOT a new release

(2) The memo relates to a HOAX exposed DECADES ago by a convicted con-man - Silas Newton.

(3) The memo does NOT relate to Roswell




I’m not the first person to get frustrated about discussions of the relevant memo by Special Agent Guy Hottel dated 22 March 1950. William Moore (a prominent UFO researcher and co-author of the first book about the Roswell crash) has expressed very similar feelings.

In 1985 (yes, over 25 years ago!), William Moore wrote that Hottel’s memo “has been cited out of context again and again by an entire array of UFO researchers as conclusive evidence that the U.S. government is in possession of a crashed saucer. Had any of them bothered to research the matter before jumping to conclusions, they would have realized the memo is essentially useless in
that the origin of the information cited therein can be traced directly to Silas M. Newton himself”. (See Moore, 1985, page 144)


Okay, enough is enough – rather than posting the odd link or short comment in one of the multitude of discussions of this memo, I’ve taken advantage of a sleepness night to pull together relevant material and write a much more detailed summary.



This post is split into the following sections:

Section A – Recap - The memo

Section B – Recap - Recent media coverage of the memo

Section C – The memo is NOT a new release

Section D – The memo relates to the Silas Newton affair

Section E - The Silas Newton affair was exposed as a hoax DECADES ago

Section F – The memo does NOT relate to Roswell

Section G – William Moore’s article about all this

Section H - Conclusion

Section I – References



(Before sceptics get too smug about all these points, I should mention that a fair proportion of the comments about Hottel’s memo made by them fail to give credit to prior researchers, give incomplete references and/or repeat rather misleading statements without checking the source material).

Section A

Recap - Guy Hottel’s memo to the director of the FBI

For ease of reference, here is a copy of the relevant memo to the Director of the FBI (Hoover) by Special Agent Guy Hottel (SAC Washington) dated 22 March 1950 (see image koi_t19500322_1):

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/8fad24cf2b51.jpg[/atsimg]

The memo includes the following:

“The following information was furnished to SA …… by …, …. … . …

An investigator for the Air Forces stated that three so-called flying saucers had been recovered in New Mexico. They were described as being circular in shape with raised centers, approximately 50 feet in diameter. Each one was occupied by three bodies of human shape but only 3 feet tall, dressed in metallic cloth of a very fine texture. Each body was bandaged in a manner similar to the blackout suits used by speed flying and test pilots.

According to Mr … informant, the saucers were found in New Mexico due to the fact that the Government has a very high-powered radar set-up in that area and it is believed the radar interferes with the controlling mechanism of the saucers.

No further evaluation was attempted by SA … concerning the above”.

The Hottel is NOT a fake... It is about a hoax, but is a genuine FBI document.
While Bruce Maccabbee has been reported (e.g. by Jim Oberg and Jack Sarfatti) as stating that the document is “a fraud”, I doubt that Bruce said any such thing. Bruce’s other comments (Maccabee, 200, pages 137 and 166-167) about the memo show that he is well aware that the document is a genuine FBI document (not a faked or fraudulent document) albeit that he (rightly) considers that it relates to the well known fraud by Silas Newton – discussed in Sections D and E below.

Guy Hottel’s memo is on the FBI’s own website at the link below:
vault.fbi.gov...

Section B

Recap - Recent media coverage of the memo

On 10 April 2011, the website of The Sun newspaper in England published an article entitled “ 'Aliens exist' say real-life X-Files”. The article stated that:

The top secret memos appear to back up conspiracy theories that extra-terrestrials landed in the US town of Roswell - before they were sent to the infamous Area 51 US airbase.
Three circular-shaped spaceships crashed containing the bodies of extra-terrestrials which were only three feet tall, said a special agent in 1950.
…
Last night British UFO expert Nick Pope - who investigated mystery air threats for the Ministry of Defence - said: "These are the real life X-Files. This document could be the smoking gun that proves UFOs are real".
The FBI published the document along with thousands of files available in a new online archive called The Vault.”

On 11 April 2011, the website of “The Telegraph” newspaper in England published an article entitled "Exploding UFOs and alien landings' in secret FBI files”. That article stated that:

Secret FBI files have been released detailing how US officials saw a UFO explode over Utah – and aliens land near Roswell in New Mexico.
…
Among them is a 1950 statement from special agent Guy Hottel, which seems to provide evidence for the theory that aliens landed at Roswell, New Mexico.
In the memo, Agent Hottel said that "three so-called flying saucers had been recovered in New Mexico".
He wrote that the flying saucers were "described as being circular in shape with raised centers, approximately 50 feet in diameter."
In a statement that is reminiscent of the hit 1990s TV programme The X-Files, he went on to describe the alien life forms inside the UFOs.
"Each one was occupied by three bodies of human shape but only 3 feet tall," he wrote.
The bodies were "dressed in a metallic cloth of a very fine texture. Each body was bandaged in a manner similar to the blackout suits used by speed flyers and test pilots."
Agent Hottel suggested that the UFOs had crashed in New Mexico because high-powered government radar had interfered with their operating systems.
The release of the files are likely to intensify the claims of conspiracy theorists who believe the US government covered up alien landings.

Also on 11 April 2011, the website of The Daily Mail newspaper in England published an article entitled “The memo that 'proves aliens landed at Roswell'... released online by the FBI”. The article stated that:

The release of the secret memo is likely to fuel conspiracy theorists' claims of a government cover-up.

Numerous other articles along similar lines have been published in the last few days.

As noted above, relevant threads on the ATS discussion forums in relation to these issues in the last few days include:
* “ "Just Released" The memo that 'proves aliens landed at Roswell”,
* “Disclosure is coming people....” and
* “Aliens found in released FBI docs”.

Section C

The memo is NOT a new release

The newspaper stories about the release of Guy Hottel’s memo dated 22 March 1950 and other FBI documents have prompted much breathless speculation that Disclosure (with a capital D) is at hand i.e. that an announcement by the Government is imminent that Earth has been receiving little alien visitors.

One of the basic flaw in all this speculation is, as I’ve been trying to point out for several days, this memo is NOT a new release. It was released in the late 1970s. (It was received by Bruce Maccabbee as part of a response to his Freedom of Information Act request in 1977).

Guy Hottel’s memo has been covered in multiple books. So have many other FBI documents related to UFOs which are now being said to have “just” been released.

Heck, on my shelves there are at least two UFO books which have “FBI” in their title (both of which are available on Amazon and elsewhere). They are:
(1) Bruce Maccabee's book “UFO FBI Connection” (2000).
(2) Nick Redfern's book “The FBI Files” (1998).

Both discuss the Hottel memo.

While I would not expect newspaper reporters to bother reading UFO books (goodness knows how much time I wasted going through over 1,000 of them…), but I don’t think it would be too much to hope that the reporters would put “Guy Hottel” into Google and notice that multiple websites already had images of his memo. There have already been multiple threads over the years about the Hottel memo, several of which included images of that memo and/or links to it. Google is your friend.

The Hottel memo has been available on the FBI website for over a decade. The Wayback Machine’s Internet Archive of the FBI’s old UFO webpage for 1998 includes links to 16 downloadable PDF documents (which I downloaded years ago). The Hottel Memo is in PDF 8 of those 16 files at page 34.

Surprising as it may be to many Americans, the US was actually in the lead in releasing UFO documents. A considerable quantity of documents were released by various U.S. government agencies in the 1970s/1980s.

Basically, the new FBI "vault" which has gathered so much publicity in the last few days is just a new interface to make it easier and faster to access documents on the FBI website. Previously, the UFO documents on the FBI website were simply grouped into various downloadable PDF documents.

My favourite sequence of documents within the FBI files relates to the memo dated 24 September 1947 from FBI Assistant Director D M Ladd to FBI Director J Edgar Hoover which summarises, and attaches, a memo dated 23 September 1947 from Colonel R H Smith (Assistant Chief of Staff Intelligence) revealing that the FBI had been asked to assist the Air Force in UFO investigations “to relieve the numbered Air Forces of the task of tracking down all the many instances which turned out to be ash can covers, toilet seats and whatnot”.

The following video of a presentation by Bruce Maccabee is a helpful (free) introduction to the FBI documents about UFOs:

Google Video Link

Incidentally:

(1) There are various UFO documents within the FBI “Vault” that DO demonstrate that the FBI was, um, economical with the truth in relation to UFOs.

(2) Far, far more documents have been released by American agencies other than the FBI (particularly by the US Air Force), but that's probably for another discussion...

i love this thread, its so revealing, k thanks

Section D

The memo relates to the Silas Newton affair

As noted above, Guy Hottel’s memo dated 22 March 1950 began by noting that “an investigator for the Air Forces stated that” three so-called flying saucers had been recovered in New Mexico.

The first (pretty obvious, I would have thought) question is what the US Air Force files show in relation to this claim.

The US Air Force files in relation to UFOs do not contain very many documents relating to claims of recovery of flying saucers. The vast majority of those files relate to sightings of lights/objects in the sky. Examining US Air Force files around the period up to March 1950 for claims of crashed flying discs, it is not difficult to find the documents underlying the information reported by Hottel. (Oddly, however, I do not recall having ever seen these documents on any UFO website in connection with Hottel’s memo – although some websites do include a summary of information published by William Moore about them, as discussed in Section F below).

The relevant Air Force reports are available (with some redactions) via the National Archives in the USA. They begin with the following document which refers to a story in the 6 January 1950 edition of the Wyandotte Echo, Kansas City (see Koi_t19500322_2):

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/69f93bd9fe34.jpg[/atsimg]

The National Archives include various memos relating to that Wyandotte Echo article, including one that attaches the text of that article.

With a modest amount of effort overnight, I dug out an unredacted copy of that article from the 6 January 1950 edition of the Wyandotte Echo, Kansas City (in Steinman and Stevens, 1986, at pages 103-105). That article includes the following:

“CAME TO EARTH BY ACCIDENT SAYS RUDY FLICK, FORD DEALER

The secret of the flying saucers is a secret no longer. Two weeks ago, Rudy Fick, well-known Kansas City auto dealer, stopped over in Denver … While there, he called on the manager and assistant manager of the Ford agency there. Their conversation was interrupted by a call from two engineers, arranging an immediate meeting. One of these engineers, a man named Coulter, revealed some startling information.

According to the story told by Coulter, he ‘crashed the gate’ at a radar station near the New Mexico and Arizona border after two weeks of arranging. Here he saw two of the highly secret ‘flying saucers’. …”

That article reported “Coulter” as claiming that one of the flying saucers was reportedly badly damaged. Both were occupied by a crew of two. They were “of a uniform height of three feet” and dressed in uniform clothing. “Since they seem to invariably crash near radar installations it is surmised that they are attracted by radar, or possibly radar waves interfere with their control systems”.

Those familiar with the Silas Newton hoax (discussed in a moment and already covered in literally dozens of UFO books) will recognise this basic story and can probably guess that “Coulter” was in fact the George Koehler that played a role in that hoax. For the moment, let’s continue digging into the Air Force files relating to the story attributed to “Coulter” by Rudy Fick.

Contrary to the version of events relayed by some researchers (particularly sceptics), the Air Force did not merely pass on the Wyandotte Echo article to Hottel at the FBI. The Air Force put a reasonable amount of effort into investigating the story. It interviewed several of those involved.

The results of those interviews are summarised in the National Archives document below (see image Koi_t19500322_3a below). That document indicates that the source of the Wyandotte Echo article, “Coulter”, denied having seen any flying saucers, he stated he got his information from scientists in Phoenix, Arizona and declined to reveal the source of his information.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/fdfe35794bf7.jpg[/atsimg]

Further details of the investigations and interviews performed by the Air Force are
as shown by various additional documents

The Air Force began by speaking to Rudy Fick, the person named in the headline of the Wyandotte Echo article (see image Koi_t19500322_4a below).

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/00fd5ebfd0a5.jpg[/atsimg]

An unredacted copy of that memo is below (see image Koi_t19500322_4b below):

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/6a82b5251b1a.jpg[/atsimg]

The Air Force followed up that discussion by various means, including speaking with “Coulter” himself. Most of those investigations are summarised in the following multi-page memo.

Since the most readable copy of that memo is redacted to remove names, I have followed each page of the redacted memo is followed with a less readable but, importantly, unredacted copy – mainly to prove that the “Coulter” referred to in the press article was in fact “George Koehler” (see, in particular, image Koi_t19500322_5b below).


Koi_t19500322_5a (page 2 of memo, redacted)::
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/7390e0453478.jpg[/atsimg]

Koi_t19500322_5b (page 2 of memo, unredacted):
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/9504dad7250a.jpg[/atsimg]

Koi_t19500322_6a (page 3 of memo, redacted)::
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/671d686b04be.jpg[/atsimg]

Koi_t19500322_6b (page 3 of memo, unredacted)::
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/23f368c48842.jpg[/atsimg]

Koi_t19500322_7a (page 4 of memo, redacted)::
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/c6dff1779217.jpg[/atsimg]

Koi_t19500322_7b (page 4 of memo, unredacted)::
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/9a54dcd2ff28.jpg[/atsimg]

Koi_t19500322_8a (page 1 of memo, unredacted):
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/7fb56d0d3374.jpg[/atsimg]

Koi_t19500322_8b (page 2 of memo, unredacted):
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/e5e98002783c.jpg[/atsimg]


(Incidentally, the Air Force files - and the FBI files - also include other documents directly relating to Silas Newton – incorrectly referred to in some of those document as “Cy Newton”)


From this memo (particularly the unredacted versions) it can clearly be seen that “Coulter” was in fact George Koehler and that his source of information was in fact “Dr Gebauer”. The names of George Koehler and “Dr Gebauer” will be familiar to most people that know about the Silas Newton hoax, but for completeness I’ll summarise that hoax briefly in Section E below.

Section E

Silas Newton affair exposed as a hoax DECADES ago

The hard part in understanding the Guy Hottel memo is linking it to the Silas Newton affair. This was done in Section D. I’ll just give a very brief overview of the Silas Newton affair.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/a1e99e332b0e.jpg[/atsimg]

Silas Newton gave a lecture at the University of Denver on 8 March 1950. That lecture became the foundation of a very popular UFO book by Frank Scully, “Behind the Flying Saucers”, published later in 1950 (available online here).

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/9d1d66015e8b.jpg[/atsimg]

In his book, Scully gave details of a story told to him by Silas Newton and a scientist friend (“Dr Gee”) about several crashed UFOs. The first of these saucers allegedly went down near Aztec, New Mexico.

Silas Newton was introduced at the relevant lecture at the University of Denver by a Mr George Koehler, i.e. the “Coulter” in the article investigated by the Air Force and which formed the basis of Hottel’s memo. Frank Scully told Cahn that the “Dr Gee” in Scully’s book was in fact Leo Gebauer – i.e. the individual Koehler named as Koehler’s source when interviewed by the Air Force. Thus, the sources of the Hottel memo and Scully’s book are clearly intimately connected.

In terms of briefly giving reasons for considering the story told to Frank Scully by Silas Newton and Leo GeBauer to have been a hoax, it is difficult to know where to start.

Perhaps I should start with the fact that both Silas Newton and Leo Gebauer were con men? Many others have already highlighted their conviction for fraud . Dave Thomas has posted a headline from the Denver Post about that conviction.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/679aa9f5a07b.jpg[/atsimg]

Several researchers have also already highlighted:

(1) the legal problems that Silas Newton and Leo Gebauer had BEFORE the UFO crash hoax (e.g. Cahn, 1952; Moore, 1985). For example, various newspaper articles found by Cahn detailed an arrest of Silas Newton on the charge of grand larceny in 1931, a story about alleged fraudulent stock practices by Silas Newton in 1932, alleged false stock statements in 1934 and other problems.

(2) the other legal problems that Silas Newton and Leo Gebauer had after the UFO crash hoax it (e.g. Moore, 1985; Peebles, 1994, page 325). At the time of his death in 1972 at age 83, there were 140 civil suits pending against Silas Newton.

(3) Reasons for the FBI investigating Leo GeBauer (e.g. Redfern, 1998), including a reported statement by GeBauer in 1941 that “What this country needs is a man like Hitler” and that “the guy that shoots President Roosevelt should be given a gold medal” (Redfern, 1998, page 216).


Or perhaps you view considering those legal problems (wrongly) as being an ad hominem attack? On the other hand, it probably would be a frivolous aside to start by commenting on Frank Scully’s other books, e.g. “Fun in Bed” (e.g. :

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/1bf9e70c55bc.jpg[/atsimg]


Given that George Koehler was the source of the information provided to the FBI, perhaps I should start my noting that he was reported to have said that the entire saucer story was a big joke. This was reported by no less a leading (pro-alien visitor) UFO researcher than Donald Keyhoe in one of his books, “Flying Saucers Are Real” at pages 115-116 of the version online at the link below:

www.scribd.com...

… Ken Purdy phoned. He told me that staff men from Time and Life magazines were seriously checking on the "little men" story. Both Purdy and I were sure this was a colossal hoax, but there was just a faint chance that someone had been on the fringe of a real happening and had made up the rest of the story.

They key man in the story seemed to be one George Koehler, of Denver, Colorado. The morning after Purdy called, I took a plane to Denver. During the flight I went over the "little men" story again. It had been printed in over a hundred papers. According to the usual version, George Koehler had accidentally learned of two crashed saucers at a radar
station on our southwest border. The ships were made of some strange metal. The cabin was stationary, placed within a large rotating ring.

Here is the story as it was told in the Kansas City Star: In flight, the ring revolved at a high rate of speed, while the cabin remained stationary like the center of a gyroscope. Each of the two ships seen by Koehler were occupied by a crew of two. In the badly damaged ship, these bodies were charred so badly that little could be learned from them. The occupants of the other ship, while dead when they were found, were not burned or disfigured, and, when Koehler saw them, were in a perfect state of preservation. Medical reports, according to Koehler, showed that these men were almost identical with earth-dwelling humans, except for a few minor differences. They were of a uniform height of three feet, were uniformly blond, beardless, and their teeth were completely free of fillings or cavities. They did not wear undergarments, but had their bodies taped. The ships seemed to be magnetically controlled and powered. In addition to a piece of metal, Koehler had a clock or automatic calendar taken from one of the crafts. Koehler said that the best assumption as to the source of the ships was the planet Venus.
When I arrived at Denver, I went to the radio station where Koehler worked. I told him that if he had proof that we could print, we would buy the story.
As the first substantial proof, I asked to see the piece of strange metal he was supposed to have. Koehler said it had been sent to another city to be analyzed. I asked to see pictures of the crashed saucers. These, too proved to be somewhere else. So did the queer "space clock" that Koehler was said to have.

By this time I was sure it was all a gag. I had the feeling that Koehler, back of his manner of seeming indignation at my demands, was hugely enjoying himself. I cut the interview short and called Ken Purdy in New York.

"Well, thank God that's laid to rest," he said when I told him.

But even though the "little men" story had turned out-as expected--a dud, Koehler had done me a good turn. An old friend, William E. Barrett, well-known fiction writer, now lived in Denver. Thanks to Koehler's gag, I had a pleasant visit with Bill and his family.

On the trip back, I bought a paper at the Chicago airport. On an inside page I ran across Koehler's name.
According to the A.P., he had just admitted the whole thing was a big joke.
But in spite of this, the "little men" story goes on and on. Apparently not even Koehler can stop it now.”

It seems that Keyhoe was right about the story going on and on. I’ll bet that he’s spinning in his grave at the moment…


Or perhaps I should begin with the numerous bits of scientific nonsense in Frank Scully’s book based upon information provided by Silas Newton and “Dr Gee”/Gebauer? For example, Frank Scully has a detailed section in his book about the measurements of the craft followed the “rule of nine”, being 99.99 feet in diameter with a cabin 18 feet across and 72 inches high (without noting these measurements are only divisible by nine if the aliens adopt the English imperial system of measurements – Peebles, 1994, page 57).

By the way, Scully did not take kindly to people pointing out that, frankly, at best he was an idiot when it came to the science in his book. For example, in one piece written by Scully following publication of his book he noted that his book set “everybody, me included, so upside down that I even recorded the planets in that order – a gaffe which brought me more attention than of I had set things down right”. Rather than apologise for such errors, Frank Scully claimed (with his usual slightly irritating level of hyperbole) that he “saw the mistakes long before” his correctors and “even saw many that they couldn’t see even if you pointed them out with radar” (Scully, 1986, at page 120).

Or perhaps priority should be given to the fact that Silas Newton produced physical proof of his stories (in the form of various metal objects said by Silas Newton to have been a previously unknown metal from a crashed UFO that would not melt even at 10,000 degrees) and that one, um, enterprising researcher stole some of that metal, had it tested and found it “melted quite nicely at Stanford Research Institute at just 657 degrees, Fahrenheit” and that it was “plain old aluminium, 99.5 percent pure, a quality commercially described as grade 2S and used in the manufacture of nothing more cosmic than pots and pans” (Cahn, 1952).


Or perhaps I should begin by noting some of the critical comments made by some leading UFO researchers who believe that, while alien spaceships probably crashed on Earth, Silas Newton and Leo Gebauer were obviously lying through their teeth in relation to their particular crash stories?

I could go on and on (and doubtless some of you think I already have gone on and on…) but I will draw the line at giving the link below to a list of references I’ve compiled to dozens and dozens of UFO books which already give details of this hoax:
www.isaackoi.com...

Basically, it is a well known hoax - exposed in some detail by J P Cahn in the 1950s (Cahn, 1952; Cahn, 1956) and many others since.

As with any case, it is possible to find a few researchers that claim that there might be some truth behind the claims made by Silas Newton – but even they would accept that they are distinctly within the minority even amongst ufologists that believe that alien spaceships have crashed on Earth. Just for those of you looking for some ray of hope in relation to the some truth behind Silas Newton’s hoax, I’ll mention that:

(1) the 1986 book “UFO Crash at Aztec” by Steinman and Stevens (1986) maintains that there is something to the Aztec story - although that massive and badly edited book has been described as nonsense by several prominent ufologists (e.g. Jerome Clark said it “draws on speculation, rumor, unnamed informants and unbridled paranoia to defend and elaborate on the original story”- Redfern, 1998 page 216); and

(2) there is rather sympathetic documentary about the alleged Aztec crash by Paul Kimball heavily featuring Aztec crash promoter Scott Ramsey - which is on Youtube (although when watching it, I had to wonder if Paul had his tongue planted firmly in his cheek since it does not seem to reflect his usual high standards of critical analysis...):

Section F

The memo does NOT relate to Roswell

From the material in Section D, it can be seen that Hottel’s memo dated 22 March 1950 relates to the stories told by Silas Newton of crashes of flying saucers at various locations around New Mexico. Silas Newton never identified Roswell as one of those locations (and his claims are basically synonymous with claims of a UFO crash at Aztec, New Mexico).

Despite this fact and the absence of any location in Hottel’s memo other than “New Mexico” that the memo, it is amusing (or saddening, if you happen to take ufology at all seriously) to note that virtually all the reports relating to this article state or imply the memo is related to the alleged crash at Roswell.

Section G

William Moore’s article about all this

Some sceptics have credited the gist of the above explanation of Hottel’s memo to Dave Thomas, a physicist and mathematician. He is (or was) president of the science group New Mexicans for Science and Reason

However, the relevant article by Dave Thomas clearly credits his comments on the Guy Hottel to William Moore, stating : “William Moore even traced how the story got from Silas Newton to J. Edgar Hoover: Newton told George Koehler (employed at radio station KMYR in Denver), who told Morley Davies, who told Ford dealers Murphy and van Horn, who told auto dealer Fick, who told the editor of the Kansas City Wyandotte Echo. By that time, Koehler had become "Coulter," just like a game of "gossip" (or a game of "pi")! This article was picked up in the news, where it caught the interest of the OSI. The OSI agent passed the story on to Guy Hottel of the FBI, and he gave the 8th-hand story to Hoover.”

While the very brief article by Dave Thomas did not give a reference for information credited to William Moore, I’ve tracked it down to a MUFON Symposium paper (Moore, 1985). Most of William Moore’s detailed article covers ground well covered by earlier writers and establishes that Silas Newton was a hoaxer. However, it includes a few detailed paragraphs relating directly to the Guy Hottel memo. For the sake of giving due credit, and highlighting a couple of issues, I’ve taken the liberty of including those paragraphs below (since I do not think they are available online elsewhere and the relevant publication is not very easy to obtain):

“How many of the literally hundreds of crashed saucer stories circulating today (and cited or repeated by Leonard Stringfield and others) originated with the Scully-Newton- GeBauer machinations of more than three-and-one-half decades ago can only be guessed at, but the evidence at hand would appear to suggest a very significant percentage. Many of these, due to the degree of removal from the original source, the passage of time, and the death or unknown whereabouts of individuals whose testimony would be necessary to identify the original source, are simply untraceable dead-ends today and hence serve only to add to the confusion. One case in particular provides an excellent example of just such a scenario: (Note 40)

Eight Rounds, and Counting... Some time during September or October 1949, Newton began telling his crashed saucer stories to his close friend in Denver, George Koehler. The central theme in his story to Koehler was that a saucer had crashed in the vicinity of a high-powered radar site on the New Mexico-Arizona border, that the dead aliens were all about 3 feet in height, were dressed in garments made of metallic cloth, and that they wore no undergarments but rather had their bodies wrapped or taped. (These four points are important to remember: (l) High-powered radar site in Ariz.-N.M.; (2) 3T in height; (3) metallic cloth; and (4) taped bodies.) The die had been cast. Koehler, who evidently believed Newton without question, repeated the tale during early October 1949, to a number of his friends including Morley P. Davies,'a field representative for the Walter J. Thompson Co. in Denver. Davies, in turn, repeated the story to at least two of his associates, Jack M. Murphy and L.J. van Horn, who were manager and assistant manager of a local Ford Motor agency there. In mid-December, Murphy and van Horn in their turn told the tale, now fourth hand, to Kansas City, Kansas, auto dealer Rudy Fick who was passing through Denver on his way home from Ogden, Utah. Back home in Kansas City, Fick passed along the now fifth-hand tale to the editor of the Wyandotte Echo, a weekly newspaper published in Kansas City. In the telling, the name " Koehler " had now become "Coulter," and the number of flying saucers in possession of the U.S. government had grown from three or four to "around fifty," 40 of which were under study "in the United States Research Bureau in Los Angeles." The bit about the high-powered radar site on the N.M.-Ariz. border remained in the story, as did the alleged 3- foot height of the aliens and the manner of their dress. Fick implied that "Coulter" had actually seen the disc -himself. The story, attributed to Fick, his friends in Denver, and ultimately "Coulter," appeared in the January.6, 1950 edition of the Wvandotte Echo, and from there was picked up by a number of other papers around the country. This attracted the interest of both the FBI and OSI, the latter of which began investigating it as an adjunct to their case already in progress on Mikel Conrad. (Note 41) By early March, a whole series of communications pertaining to the matter had passed between OSI headquarters in Washington, B.C., and various field units, one of which, dated 14 March 1950, (Note 42) stated that Newton's November 24, 1949, conversation with Cabot at the Lakeside Country Club had been witnessed by a "local KFI radio news commentator (name officially deleated) who, on a morning program, announced in effect that a party at a Hollywood country club had stated that he had information on flying discs and that the discussion took place over a round of drinks at the •nineteenth hole' (bar)...and that the 'story got better with each drink'." (OSI had attempted to interview Newton at the time, but without success in that Newton had apparently gone off to Wyoming shortly thereafter.)

In any case, one of the agents at OSI headquarters in Washington, passed the Fick story, now seventh-hand, along to Special Agent Guy Hottel, one of his contacts in the Washington office of the FBI (with whom OSI often worked quite closely), who in turn, on March 22, 1950, generated a memo on it to J. Edgar Hoover himself. Hottel's memo, repeating a now eighth-hand story but still retaining the four key points of the original Newton story (i.e. high-powered radar site in New Mexico — but now without mention of Arizona —, 3-foot tall aliens, metallic cloth, and wrapped bodies), has been cited out of context again and again by an entire array of UFO researchers as conclusive evidence that the U.S. government is in possession of a crashed saucer. Had any of them bothered to research the matter before jumping to conclusions, they would have realized the memo is essentially useless in that the origin of the information cited therein can be traced directly to Silas M. Newton himself.

(Emphasis added by Isaac Koi)

As far as I can tell, numerous sceptics have repeated comments made by Dave Thomas without going back to William Moore’s article and then looking at the Air Force documents he cited.

If sceptics had gone back to the Air Force documents shown above, they would have seen that – among other issues with William Moore’s account - all the claims about the OSI agent merely passing on an eighth-hand account obtained just from reading a newspaper article are complete nonsense. The Air Force clearly spent a relatively significant amount of time looking into this particular UFO case, including interviewing George Koehler. The Air Force did not simply read the newspaper article. (The documents relating to the Air Force investigation show that many other UFO reports received superficial consideration).

Incidentally, William Moore has an interesting past. At a MUFON conference in 1989 he claimed (or “admitted” according to the rather biased article about him on Wikipedia) that he had been involved in disinformation activities on behalf of Air Force Office of Special Investigation officers. While I thought it worth mentioning this point, rather than going it in detail here I’ll again just give a link to a list of references to discussion of Bill Moore in numerous UFO books:
www.isaackoi.com...

It seems that some sceptics, as well as many believers, have refused to let minor things like the facts get in the way of a good story.

Overall, however, this is one battle which (if the evidence is carefully considered – which I’m doubtful will be the case) the sceptics win.

Section H : Conclusion

In response to recent excited demands that sceptics consider the “new” memo proving that alien bodies were recovered at Roswell, it should be borne in mind that many sceptics that aren't completely ignorant of the history of ufology would probably say (as I pointed out a few days ago) something along the lines of the following:

"What, those old documents?! You do know the document you are so excited about was released in the 1970s and has been shown to relate to a well known hoax that was exposed decades ago, don't you? Is that really the best evidence you have to offer? If so, please leave me alone until you have something better. If you didn't know that, why should I take anything you have to say seriously so please leave me alone. Either way, please leave me alone. PLEASE. Really, PLEASE leave me alone".

As I noted in the introduction, in 1985 (yes, over 25 years ago!), William Moore wrote that Hottel’s memo “has been cited out of context again and again by an entire array of UFO researchers as conclusive evidence that the U.S. government is in possession of a crashed saucer. Had any of them bothered to research the matter before jumping to conclusions, they would have realized the memo is essentially useless in that the origin of the information cited therein can be traced directly to Silas M. Newton himself”. (See Moore, 1985, page 144)

In the last day or so, the main stream media is beginning to catch up with the true position (albeit with some errors made by William Moore being repeated ad infinitum).

Tomorrow or next week, the UFO websites will start catching up.

Then, in another few months the process will start all over again with few people remembering the current episode.

So, basically it's your standard messed up nonsense that abounds within ufology.

Sigh.

This episode (and the rejection to some of my posts attempting to correct numerous misconceptions regarding the “new” FBI documents) has merely reinforced my view that I should be spending more of my limited spare time on my new hobby. I think I may have found a hobby in which the sociological and psychological insights which (I think) I’ve gained from reading over 1,000 UFO books and reading countless related documents/articles can start to pay real financial dividends…

Section I : References

Beckley, Timothy Green in his “MJ-12 and the Riddle of Hangar 18” (1989) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 26-32, 34-38 (in Chapter 2) of the Inner Light softcover edition.

Cahn, J. P (September 1952), TRUE Magazine, "The Flying Saucers and the Mysterious Little Men". Republished as Appendix 13 in Steinman and Stevens, 1986, at pages 537-549
www.physics.smu.edu...

Cahn, J. P (September 1956), TRUE Magazine, "Flying Saucer Swindlers"
www.physics.smu.edu...

Fitzgerald, Randall in his “The Cosmic Test Tube” (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 70, 97-98, 170-171, 184 (in Section 2) with a one sentence summary at page 369 (in the Guide To Books) of the Moonlake Media softcover edition.

Good, Timothy in his “Above Top Secret” (1987) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 384-391 (in Chapter 16) of the Sidgwick & Jackson hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Guild Publishing hardback edition and the Grafton paperback edition).

Good, Timothy in his “Beyond Top Secret” (1996) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 484-496 (in Chapter 19) of the Sidgwick & Jackson hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Pan paperback edition).

Good, Timothy in his “Need To Know : UFOs, the Military and Intelligence” (2006) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 117-123 (in Chapter 7) of the Sidgwick & Jackson hardback edition.

Menzel, Donald in his “Flying Saucers” (1953) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 45-46 (in Chapter 4, “Hoaxers and Jokers”) and pages 149-166 (Chapter 12 generally, “The little men from Venus”) of the Putnam hardback edition.

Moore, William (1985), MUFON Symposium Proceedings 1985, pages 144-145.

Moseley, James and Pflock, Karl in their “Shockingly Close to the Truth!” (2002) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 66-67, 76, 77-80, 82 (in Chapter 3), 92-95 (in Chapter 4), 112 (in Chapter 5) of the Prometheus hardback edition.

Peebles, Curtis in his “Watch the Skies!” (1994) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 47-50 (Chapter 4, “The Myth Defined” – in part of a section entitled “ ‘Behind the Flying Saucers”), 271 (Chapter 17) of the Smithsonian hardback edition, at page 55-58, 325 of the Berkley paperback edition.

Randle, Kevin in his “The UFO Casebook” (1989) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 40-45 (forming part of entry entitled “1948: The UFO Crashes Begin”) of the Warner Books paperback edition.

Randle, Kevin D and Schmitt, Donald R in their “UFO Crash at Roswell“ (1991) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 240 (in Appendix A), 247-248 (in Appendix B), 262-263 (in Appendix C) of the Avon paperback edition.

Randle, Kevin in his “A history of UFO crashes” (1995) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 1, 3 (in the Introduction), 184-187 of the Avon paperback edition.

Randles, Jenny in her “UFO Retrievals” (1995) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 56-61 (in Chapter 3) of the Blandford softback edition.

Redfern, Nicholas in his “The FBI Files” (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 215-230 (in Chapter 10) of the Simon & Schuster softcover edition, with the same page numbering in the Pocket Books paperback edition.

Redfern, Nicholas in his “Body Snatchers in the Desert: The Horrible Truth at the heart of the Roswell Story” (2005) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 101 (in Chapter 10), 174-178 (in Chapter 14) of the Paraview Pocket Books softback edition.

Redfern, Nicholas in his “On the Trail of the Saucer Spies : UFOs and Government Surveillance” (2006) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 7-13 (in Chapter 1) of the Anomalist Books softcover edition.

Schwarz, Berthold E in his “UFO Dynamics : Psychiatric and Psychic Aspects of the UFO Syndrome” (1983) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 526-530 (in Chapter 25) of the 1988 revised Rainbow Books softcover edition.

Scully, Frank “Behind the Flying Saucers” (1950)

Scully, Frank in “UFO Crash at Aztec” (1986) by Steinman, William and Stevens, Wendelle (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 120-124, 126-127, 129, 130-143, 157-159, 234-237 of the Wendelle Stevens hardback edition.

Steinman, William and Stevens, Wendelle in their “UFO Crash at Aztec” (1986) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) generally, at pages 5-625 of the Wendelle Stevens hardback edition.

Thomas, Dave “The Aztec UFO Symposium”, NMSR Reports, Vol. 4, No. 6, June 1998
www.nmsr.org...

Wood, Ryan in his “MAJIC Eyes Only” (2005) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 83-92 of the Wood Enterprises hardback edition.

Postscript

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/5db6c492921e.jpg[/atsimg]

!

Wow....it was like waiting on the next Dan Brown book to come out while reading this thread.
S&F...especially for making an entire post just of your references. Just like a good researcher should.

Now to go back and delve deeper into in this thread. Be back in couple hours with a more thoughtful reply!

Overall nice work though.

Originally posted by IsaacKoi
I think I may have found a hobby in which the sociological and psychological insights which (I think) I’ve gained from reading over 1,000 UFO books and reading countless related documents/articles can start to pay real financial dividends…

Excellent post Isaac, thanks for spreading some well-researched facts and truth.

There is definitely some psychological phenomenon going on though you may have a better understanding of it than me. I'd say it involves things like selective memory and interpretation, confirmation bias, and a desire to believe, sometimes but not always bordering on having religious fervor.

Personally I'm very willing to believe in aliens, (though I've yet to see any proof they've visited Earth), but I think we all have to be skeptical about a lot of information out there which may be presented in a biased fashion, and you presented a case study in such biases and incorrect perceptions with this excellent thread which debunks some of the competing threads with such biases in them! Thanks very much!

reply to post by IsaacKoi


Excellent post, I give it a 98%!
I have been wanting to get to the bottom of this (memo) for two days now! S&F

You seem to know your stuff, so i was wondering... are there any U.F.O cases that you find evidence to believe in?

I am majoring in astronomy, so I believe in E.T's (in a sensible way, not that pledian-reptilian b.s). But I wasn't 100% sure about whether any E.T's have visited Earth until about two months ago when someone I know accidentally slipped it to me, person works for NSA. I was talking to the NSA person about how horrible a nuclear holocaust would be, and the NSA person said "don't worry the aliens won't..." and that's all I got out of NSA person.

Originally posted by zptramel
I have been wanting to get to the bottom of this (memo) for two days now!

These memos, this Hottel memo in particular, demonstrate a couple things. The first is the FBI was interested in good UFO information but, second thing, wasn't getting it because President Harry Truman simply didn't like FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover.

Originally posted by zptramel
Excellent post, I give it a 98%!
I have been wanting to get to the bottom of this (memo) for two days now! S&F

Thanks for the kind words from you and the few people to respond so far. I'm glad at least a few people appreciate the effort involved in collating this material from various sources.

You seem to know your stuff, so i was wondering... are there any U.F.O cases that you find evidence to believe in?

I'm close to finishing a series of pieces about identifying the best UFO cases, which may answer your question. I've been working on these pieces for about 5 years now...

reply to post by IsaacKoi


Excellent post s & f

p.s

I've got a thesis needs typing up.........how you fixed?

reply to post by IsaacKoi


Well done Isaac, a fine piece worthy of much merit. Definate star & lots of flags.

I commend you on laying things out for us all to see, interesting reading and a superb investigative thread.

It's a shame so many fools are gullible enough to take what the MSM says so easily and that the thinking and consideration of the possibilities seems to stop for them once they've been suckered with a headline. The "belief" factor these days is a strong one.

I had my own doubts about the document, not that it was fake, but that it could have been (and was) misleading. You certainly cleared that up for me. I too was fed up at being bombarded with the "alien proof" spam from all sides.

Once again, well done and cheers....nerb

Brilliant post, and well worth spending a sleepless night on. Have been avoiding all the media reports and various threads because I'd read a few people saying it was nothing new on here, but didn't realise how messed up the facts really were. The whole Jerusalem UFO thing with the media really stopped me from paying serious attention to what they say, and after this too I'll probably just make sure to avoid them from here on out and stick to researching properly instead.

Liked the fact that you had 10 flags before you'd even posted everything up and added a proper title too, and hope this ends up with a lot more. Will probably link this page out to a few people because any effort put into altering the latest tide of crap coming from so many blogs, sites and media outlets has to be worth it.

Thanks again.

Originally posted by IsaacKoi
I'm close to finishing a series of pieces about identifying the best UFO cases, which may answer your question. I've been working on these pieces for about 5 years now...

The mind boggles wondering what you've got with about 5 years work if this is what you've managed in a single night! Looking forward to reading if/when you post some of it.