Documents / FOIA release
This is part five of the FBI's UFO file, a set of Bureau memoranda and reports from 1947 to 1949. Most of it covers the FBI's inquiry into the Maury Island flying disc story in Tacoma, which concluded that the disc fragments were ordinary rock formations and that the story was a hoax. It also examines the fatal crash of a B-25 at Kelso and finds no sign of sabotage. The file includes other items: the Rhodes disc photographs, a proposed flying saucer convention in Alexandria, Louisiana, and ash from a fire near Scranton that someone suggested came from a flying saucer.
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
## C August 19, 1947 refuse to furnish any further information. On August 5, 1947 Special Agent was contacted in the resident agency office, Tacoma, Washington by At this time he asked if the Seattle Office was investigation the crash of the B-25 and he was informed that no investigation was being conducted by the Seattle Office. At this time related in a rambling story that he had picked up some strange rock formations which he had forwarded to a friend of his in the University of Chicago to have analyzed and that later, in some manner unknown to him, these rock formations had been reported as being fragments of a flying disc. ## On August 7,1947 viewed at the Tacoma resident agency office. Both denied any knowledge of how the rock formations which they had picked up to have alalyzed became connected with the flying disc stories. Both denied making any statement to anyone that these rock formations were portions of a disc fragment. It was apparent from the start of the interview that and were not telling their complete and true connection with the flying disc story. They refused to give any definite information as to what they said or had done which caused them to become involved in a flying disc story, but gave evasive answers and repeatedly stated that they had nothing to do with it and were at a loss to understand how they became connected with the flying disc story. After considerable questioning, they stated that in the early part of June they sent to the editor of the Ziff-Davis Publishing Company which published the Fantasy magazine in Chicago and the Venture magazine in Evanston, Illinois, some rock formations which they had found on Maury Island. They stated they sent these formations, asking to have them analyzed. They stated that later wrote and asked for more samples, advising he had failed to analyze the samples. They stated they have never sent any additional samples and that the next they heard regarding the rock formations which they had sent was when he called and asked if the rock formations could have come from a flying disc. They stated he made some remark that they possibly could have come from a flying disc and that he immediately sat down and wrote a letter to which was in the latter part of June in which he stated the material could have been portions of a flying disc. They claimed that he thought he told over the phone something about being in his boat when he obtained these rock formations, but stated he could not recall what he had written to and claimed that he passed the whole thing off as a joke. They were questioned at length in an attempt to obtain specific information as to exactly what each one had done with regard to the rock formations. However, each stated that the only thing they had done was tell the formations could have come from a flying disc in view of the fact it appeared "that's what he wanted them to say". No definite information could be obtained from either as to what each specifically had done to start the flying disc story.
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. 74 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.