Documents / FOIA release
This FBI file section collects July 1947 Bureau memoranda, teletypes, citizen letters and newspaper clippings about reported flying discs. They cover recovered objects at Twin Falls, Idaho, Shreveport, Louisiana, Black River Falls, Wisconsin, and Laurel, Maryland, many judged to be pranks, plus a Grafton, Wisconsin priest's circular saw blade the Milwaukee office called a hoax. A Dallas teletype reports a disc recovered near Roswell resembling a high altitude weather balloon with radar reflector. Kenneth Arnold's own account of his sighting is also included.
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# Office Memorandum . UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT 65-481 TO : Director FBI DATE: September 2, 1947 FROM : SAC Butte SUPJECT: FLYING DISCS Remytel August 20, 1947. With reference to the above-described teletype, Mr. Twin Falls, Idaho, was the principal source of information. Mr. Johnson who is the Executive Director of the Bureau explained that he and his wife and Mrs. a neighbor, were sitting on their front porch at approximately 9:30 P. M., August 19, 1947. He said that Mrs. Johnson suddenly shouted and pointed to the sky and thereafter stated that she had seen an object traveling at a terrific rate of speed in a northeasterly direction. The object was out of sight before Mr. Johnson and Mrs. Johnson could see anything. While they were discussing what Mrs. had seen, approximately ten minutes later all three saw ten similar objects proceeding rapidly in the same direction in the form of a triangle. As the group of objects was dis- appearing, three of the objects on the left flank peeled off and proceeded in a more northerly direction. The remaining objects appeared to close ranks and proceeded in a northeasterly direction. From three to five minutes later these same individuals saw another group of three objects proceeding in the same direction, and again in the shape of a triangle. From three to five minutes later all three observed another group in a triangular formation consisting of five or six objects. They were proceeding in the same direction. A few minutes later the three persons saw a large group of objects estimated at from thirty-five to fifty flying in a triangular formation in the same direction. Approximately twenty or twenty-five minutes after the large group of objects was observed, similar objects were noted coming back over the city in a southwesterly direction. These objects were generally in groups of three, five and seven and followed each other at approximately five minute intervals. Mrs. called Detective of the Twin Falls Police Department, a next door neighbor, who was then accompanied by also members of the Twin Falls Police Department. The three officers watched for a few minutes and observed a group of about twelve objects flying in formation over the city in a southwesterly direction. The members of the Police Department did not continue watching, although Mr. later saw other groups, which were also seen by the and Mrs. Mrs. had also called her husband, who saw some of the objects. PRES DESTROYED 70 1.07.18 1954 42-83894-94
FOIA release, from the fbi-vault collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 79 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.