Several "UFO crash lists" and brief ufology catalogues mention a flying saucer crash in the Mojave Desert, California, USA, in "1950" or "on January 1, 1950" or in "January 1950", some version telling that 18 dead bodies of aliens were recovered. The bodies were said to be unburned, 3 feet tall and "human-looking".
An FBI Memo of January 31, 1950 proves that the case was misdated by careless ufologists; it would have necessarily occurred before 1950. The FBI memo also reveals that the source of the story is the famous con-man Leo Gebauer aka "Dr. Gee" who was known for long for various scams including an "oil detector" and a false flying saucer crash story, popularized in the 1950's by author Frank Scully.
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[Ref. fb1:] FBI:
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OFFICE MEMORANDUM * UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT
DATE: March 31, 1950 Special agent ----, of the New Orleans Division, has a brother, ... of the ... advertising agency, ..., Denver, Colorado. ... has advised Special Agent ... that an employee of the ..., ..., has been contacted by one ..., ... Street, telephone ... Denver, Colorado, regarding flying discs. ... is alleged to have told ... in January 0950, that he ..., knows a prominent Denver oilman named ..., also known as "Mysterious Mr. X", and an official of the ..., ... Denver, Colorado. ... is claiming that he leased land in the Mojave Desert in California and that on this land a flying disc had been found intact, with eighteen three-foot tall human-like occupants, all dead on it but not burned. Further, that the disc was alleged to be of very hard metal and near indestructible. ... is said to have exhibited a radio set to ... purported to be a souvenir of the space disc. According to ..., ... has been telling of the story off an on for the three months period prior to the publication of a flying disc article published in True Magazine, and one by FRANK SCULLY published in the Variety Magazine in January, 1950. ... claimed to have been visited by DONALD KEHOE [sic, Keyhoe], author of the article in True Magazine. Further data was furnished that ... had been telling the tale so prolifically in Denver that he claimed to have had telephone calls from Washington, D.C. and from the Federal Bureau of Investigation in which he was requested to keep the information to himself and that, thereafter, he became mysterious about the entire matter. It is noted that considerable publicity regarding these discs has been found in Denver and other papers. This information is being furnished to the Bureau and the designated offices for information purposes. |
[Ref. tg1:] TIMOTHY BECKLEY GREEN:
The author says that on March 31, 1950, a detailed memo was sent to Hoover [Edgar J. Hoover, FBI director] by "JML", special FBI agent and chief of the New Orleans FBI branch about Frank Scully's book and "Dr G" [con-man Leo Gebauer aka "Doctor Gee"]. He says the partially blanked out memo available due to the Freedom of Information Act is:
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OFFICE MEMORANDUM * UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT
Special agent ----, of the New Orleans division, has a brother, ... of the ... advertising agency, ..., Denver, Colorado. ... has advised Special Agent ... that an employee of the ..., ..., has been contacted by one ..., ... Street, telephone ... Denver, Colorado, regarding flying discs. ... is alleged to have told ... in January 0950, that he ..., knows a prominent Denver oilman named ..., also known as "Mysterious Mr. X", and an official of the ..., ... Denver, Colorado. ... is claiming that he leased land in the Mojave Desert in California and that on this land a flying disc had been found intact, with eighteen three-foot tall human-like occupants, all dead on it but not burned. further, that the disc was alleged to be of very hard metal and near indestructible. ... is said to have exhibited a radio set to ... purported to be a souvenir of the space disc. According to ..., ... has been telling of the story off an on for the three months period prior to the publication of a flying disc article published in True Magazine, and one by Frank Scully published in the Variety Magazine in January, 1950. ... claimed to have been visited by Donald Kehoe [sic, Keyhoe], author of the article in True Magazine. Further data was furnished that ... had been telling the tale so prolifically in Denver that he claimed to have had telephone calls from Washington, D.C. and from the Federal Bureau of Investigation in which he was requested to keep the information to himself and that, thereafter, he became mysterious about the entire matter. It is noted that considerable publicity regarding these discs has been found in Denver and other papers. This information is being furnished to the Bureau and the designated offices for information purposes. |
[Ref. sg1:] STEVEN GREER "CSETI":
On Steven Greer's CSETI website, a text appears, said to be an "FBI memo from New Orleans Branch to Director, FBI, March 31, 1950 about a disk found in the Mojave desert in January, 1950:"
"On this land a flying disk has been found intact, with eighteen three-foot tall HUMAN-LIKE occupants, all dead in it but not burned."
A note by the website says that "An alleged photograph of an alien body being kept in cold storage at Wright Patterson shows what appears to be a small HUMAN like being with human-like eyes and oriental features. Although it was about the size of the short grays, this particular being is apparently not sauroid-reptilian in nature. Is it possible that the eight- teen "human-like" occupants described in this quote are of the same race? - Branton)".
[Ref. bu1:] "BURLINGTON UFO AND PARANORMAL RESEARCH" WEBSITE:
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Reported Crashes and Recoveries based of Witnesses and Newspaper Articles. [...] 1950 January Mojave Desert, California, USA [...] |
[Ref. ar1:] ALBERT ROSALES:
Albert Rosales indicates in his catalogue that in the Mojave Desert, California, in January 1950 at an unknown time, it was reported that a flying disc shaped object had been found intact at this site, with eighteen 3-foot tall, human like occupants, all dead, but not burned. An alleged photograph of an alien body being kept in cold storage at Wright Patterson shows what appears to be as small human like being with human like eyes and oriental features.
Albert Rosales indicates that the source is "CSETI".
[Ref. go1:] GODELIEVE VAN OVERMEIRE:
The Belgian ufologist indicates that in 1950, on January 1, in the "USA, without precision", "According to confidential sources an American journalist (note by vog: it must be Frank Scully) claims that small pilots of 0,90 meters found death when their saucer entered the atmosphere. The corpses would secretly be dissected by a mysterious official service".
Godelieve van Overmeire indicates as sources: "Paris Match, without references" and "Michel MONNERIE: 'Le naufrage des Extraterrestres' Nouvelles Editions Rationalistes, Paris, 1979, p. 112, which regards this kind of newspaper clipping as hoax to nourish the myth".
[Ref. go2:] GODELIEVE VAN OVERMEIRE:
(16) LIST OF POSSIBLE UFO/ET CRAFT CRASHES AND RETRIEVALS (site Internet du CSETI) Copyright © 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 A.J. Craddock. All Rights |
The short mention of the list of the [bu1] source is on tens of websites, identical, with no other information; I do not list them. It is obviously not certain that this short mention relates to the same story as that allotted to Paris Match by Michel Monnerie.
The alleged photograph of an alien body mentioned in [sg1] is actually a wax model of an alien - quite human-looking, with oriental-looking eyes and face - which was presented for pure entertainment purposes at the exhibit "Expo'67" in 1981 in Canada. It was a way model created by Linda Corriveau, then photographed by the Canadian ufologist/esoterist Christian Robert Page. He never presented it as anything else than a way model, but finally foreign ufology magazines started to show it as a "photograph of the Roswell alien" or "alien body hidden by the government".
Edwards Air Force Base is in Mojave desert and a place where numerous aircraft prototypes were and are tested; if the story was not totally invented, it could have been suggested that possibly such a terrestrial aircraft crash was misinterpreted.
However, it appears from the FBI memo that the story is simply a distorted version of the famous scam by Silas Newton and Leo Gebauer popularized by writer Frank Scully, with the wrong year 1950 instead of 1949, either though a mistake of Paris Match magazine or a misreading by Michel Monnerie, and obviously by mistake from others who misread the FBI memo. It is even quite obvious that some people took care not to mention that the memo obviously refers to the lies told by Leo Gebauer.
| Id: | Topic: | Severity: | Date noted: | Raised by: | Noted by: | Description: | Proposal: | Status: |
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| 1 | Data | Severe | September 3, 2009 | Patrick Gross | Patrick Gross | Help needed. | Opened. |
Distorted version of a famous hoax.
* = Source I checked.
? = Source I am told about but could not check yet. Help appreciated.
| Main Author: | Patrick Gross |
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| Contributors: | None |
| Reviewers: | None |
| Editor: | Patrick Gross |
| Version: | Created/Changed By: | Date: | Change Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | September 3, 2009 | Creation, [fb1], [tg1], [bu1], [sg1], [go1], [go2]. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | September 3, 2009 | First published. |
| 1.1 | Patrick Gross | September 4, 2009 | Addition [ar1]. |
