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.
Winthrop Hotel. He stated that the purpose of this meeting was to try to find out something more about the anonymous phone calls which had told him about. He and others still refused to give out any further information regarding the Thursday evening conference to the hotel and were informed by that the telephone was afraid of being scooped on the story and was going to print something on that day. He and others then returned to the Hotel and shortly thereafter received a phone call from the hotel but the call was cut off by the switchboard operator since it was not an emergency call. He and others then returned to the Hotel lobby where they found a telegram from asking them to call him at either Broadway or Proctor Street, which is not sure of the exchange. He called this number, but was not there. He states that he went then to the Western Union Telegraph Office and dispatched a collect telegram to the hotel at the Telegraph Office which contained a brief resume of the incidents which had occurred and which requested to wire a telephone number where he could be reached after 6:00 P. M. He states that he has never received an answer to that wire. Following this, he states that he and others were sitting in the lobby of the Olympic Hotel when entered and gave them each a copy of the latest edition of the Tacoma Times which contained a story hinting at sabotage in the crash of the Army B-25 which killed Captain Davidson and Lieutenant Browne. He stated that he and others continued to occupy seats in the Hotel lobby most of the afternoon inasmuch as they were unable to receive calls in the Hotel room due to the Hotel employees' strike. He relates that he received a call in the late afternoon from advising him to call that evening at 7:30 as he had further information regarding the anonymous calls. He also received a telegram requesting that he call Davidson which he did and found that it was answered of the telephone. He refused to give any further information at this time. However, shortly thereafter, he called from Boise and advised that the Army had released a story through Brigadier General Shram revealing the confidential assignment which Browne and Davidson had been engaged on. In view of this release, he requested that he answer one question for him which was, "Here they carrying any alleged disc fragments on the plane?" and answered, "Yes, they were." Following this call, he per his earlier request and was informed that Davidson had received another anonymous phone call at which time "the voice" said that the Army B-25 carrying Captain Davidson and Lieutenant Browne had been shot down with 20 m.m. shells and that the Marine plane found on Tt. Rainier had also been shot down with 20 m.m. shells. The voice went on to state that Davidson would be called back to Wright Field on Tuesday. Then Davidson asked why he was giving out this information the caller replied that it was not for the benefit of the newspapers, but that he was interested in seeing that the information got back to New Jersey. The voice also informed Davidson at this time that one of the two persons who had been talking to Davidson and Rainier had now left for Alaska. As a result of this latter bit of information, Davidson decided to find out if Davidson or Davidson had left town. He located at the Sunset Theatre and came to the Hotel and met Davidson and Rainier. They were unable to locate Davidson by phone and Davidson left saying that he would try to find out where Davidson was and that he would call them tomorrow (Sunday) and that they would go out to Maury Island at that time. After Davidson left.
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.