FBI file 62-HQ-83894 Flying Discs, section 3

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'lirector , FBI August 27, 1947
Re : Flying Dis cs - Ta.coma , w•n .
He stated tha.t the next morning he received a call from CHRIS:~N,
who told him that Lieutenant BR011"" and Captain nAurnsor had been kil led in a
B- 25 crash . He stated he does not know how C'tfl'-?IS~1,AP knew who had been in
the olene befor e anyone else . He also stated that during the above conference
numer ous telephone calls were received from the press , wanting to know about
the conference . He stated that someone kept tipping the press off as to what
was going on and what was being said daily verbati m. He informed that PArL
LAND and MORELLO, United Press men at Tacoma, appeared to know all that took
place during the confer ence , and even kr:t.ew of the ere.sh of the B- 25 and those
aboard , before the Army released this information. lKr . ARNOLD informed that
when he received news of the crash, that he and Captain SYITH fully expected
to be contacted by Ar my Intel l igence , as they were the l ast people with
Lieutenant BROrr' a-d Captain DAVI!'S0t1 , however , they were never contacted .
He further stated that he and Captain SMITH wer,t down to the United
Press to see wh~t the survivors of the era.sh had informed about the crash and
that l'0BELL0 had told them that the myster ious informant who had been calling
had tol d him that the B- 25 had not crashed, but had beens hot dpwn, also that
MORELLO' s Army informant he.d said that an observer at Ielso , ~1ashington , had
seen the plane throw out a landing flare after the two survivors had jumped
from the plane , and that the plane had gone into a steep dive and dove into a
hillside , and further that one engine had been on fire , but that the fire
appar atus , protecting the engine, had failed to function . Hr . AFi0LP stated
that DA 1L then came to see hi m ard Captain S!HTH and told them to ~o home a nd
forget about the discs , that such things as the B- 25 crash had been happening
to him all along .
Mr . o\.lffl0LD stated that he then called l'r . PAUKER e.t Chicago and to l d
him that the deal was off a:rid that if he wanted his ,J200 . 00 back, he could
have it; ths.t two men had been killed and he was f etting frightened of the
whole thing- . He stated that PALl...V:R informed hi m that it was all ri ;i-ht with him
to keep the i200 . oo, however , he would send him a n additional check for the
trouble he had put to . Mr . ARN0Lr advised that previous to this telephone cal l ,
Captain si•ITH had called hi s friend , M0~~I~ R0DrY , of the Chica.go Times and had
tol d him that he did not have any faith in Army ~ntelligence and for RODDY to
conduct an investigation on PALMER and get to the bottom of this disc fantasy .
~r . ARNOLD also advi sed that previous to the two above telephone calls , he had
asked the pr ess to investigate PALJ~R, as Army Intelligence had informed him th!t
they could not f i nd PALMER and knew nothing concerning him, and appeared not to
be interested in PALfER, who seemed to know more a.bout the flying discs than
anyone e l se .
' 'r . ARNOLD stated that he personally thinks that PALMEP 's business is
a blind for something· else and th~t DAIL and CiffiIS1~·· will do anything that
P4.LllER asks him to and will not talk unless PJL'f8R tells him to . Mr . AR"0LD
stated that he still wanted to ret to the bottom of the disc fra~ment story
so he and Captain S~!ITF had decided to ,·o to 'l.'.a.uri Island on Sunday, Aurnst 3 ,
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