Documents / FOIA release
This Federal Bureau of Investigation file section collects 1954 to 1961 correspondence and memoranda about flying saucers. Most of it concerns the Detroit Flying Saucer Club, which the Detroit office reported on from informants and chose not to investigate, while Bureau headquarters said saucer matters belonged to the Air Force. It also includes public letters to J. Edgar Hoover, a 1955 North Carolina sighting report, Leonard Stringfield's 1961 anonymous warning call, and policy reviews that restate the practice of referring reports to the Air Force.
“The Pentagon”6 pages
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## THE CINCINNATI PAINT INCIDENT -- A PARALLEL PHENOMENON? Residents in Cincinnati, Sept. 11, '54 had similar experiences. One Albert Allgeyer came home from work to find the bright yellow trim on his two-story house stained to a "washed-out brown, almost black color." The stains would rub off, without taking the hard top coat of paint, too. It looked like someone had used a blow-torch, and in some places the stains appeared in dirty brown rivulets. Allgeyer was certain that the stains weren't there the night before. So was Howard May, neighbor, who received similar treatment. His house trimmed in yellow too, as is another house across the street where stains appeared. On Sept. 22, I talked with Allgeyer again and learned that the Kettering Lab of University of Cincinnati had taken air samples as well as specimens of the affected paint. A Dr. Hughes explained that the mystery was caused by the chemical reaction of hydrogen sulphide which could attack the lead in certain paint. The Lab averred that the chemical probably emanated from the Millcreek Valley which runs near Allgeyer's home, and which has since affected other homes in the area. Although a Proctor and Gamble doctor who examined Allgeyer told him that the chemical mentioned is not injurious to people, Allgeyer, five days after the incident complained of extreme swelling of both hands and eye lids. Described as some kind of allergy -- not hives, they offered no explanation. Editor's Note: Remembering other ubiquitous mysteries, viz., pitted windshields, metallic pellets, curious ash deposits, I referred to a recent article written by Edward S. Schultz, of Buffalo, N.Y. entitled, "The Growing Windshield Damage Phenomenon," which appeared in B.S.R.A.'s May-June, 1954 issue of Round Robin. In this, Schultz offers plausible and provocative theor... and the possible answer to these phenomena. Write Meade Layne, Director, 3524 Adams Ave., San Diego 16, California. ## 2 CASE FILE REVIEW: Space does not permit the use of all the excellent material received. Sightings in the U.S., Europe and Australia are continuing and will be used in forthcoming issues of the Newsletter. C-22, Rockford, Ill...9/5/54) As they had done on many occasions, amateur astronomers, Peter Bartkus and Theodore McColm, were watching the moon through a telescope. Between the hours of 10:35 and 11:15 P.M., Bartkus writes: "I observed the most unusual phenomena I have ever had the experience of witnessing." Bartkus continues: "The moon was observed through my 6" cassigranian reflector telescope using a secondary mirror. The total focal length for this setup is over 100", and with the use of 150 and 200 power occurrers we got tremendous power with the least loss of light. The moon was in the first quarter and its diameter was 29 feet, 30 inches. We saw a spherical object ascending from the northern section off Mare Humboldtianum area. It was not glowing or brilliant, but seemed more like a dull reflected light of a planet. Its size we estimated at about the diameter of craters Pitiscus or Vlaco. At the time it disappeared at 11:15, it had travelled more than the 29 30" of arc in about 40 minutes. We checked out the possibility of atmospheric diffraction in the sky or the scope by traversing the scope, and by changing the occulars. The object must have been a powered body because as the moon was descending at 1081 mph, the object was ascending and not following a true orbit. It was definitely in space, and in the same field as the moon, or near the moon."
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. 148 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.