Documents / FOIA release

FBI file: UFO, UFO Part 13

Federal Bureau of Investigation · 148 pages · text by OCR

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.

  • p. 49 …regarding the photo graphs showing UFO's in formational flight, which you mention were taken by…
  • p. 53 JET "EXPLODES" CHASING UFO NEAR UTICA, N.Y.: The gamy but saucer phobic press tried pitting…
  • p. 96 …The has been investigating UFO and flying saucer sightings since August 1953. We have a State…
  • p. 97 …Bureau files reveal an inquiry from 1959, regarding the investigation of UFO. He was informed the…
  • p. 98 …SA did not interview merely for the purpose of writing "a memorandum for the files" but…
  • p. 104 …the files." Volunteered the following: "If the FBI has any such data on UFO sightings, it…
  • p. 127 …He also told me he was going to prepare a "memorandum for the files" on this…
  • p. 128 …He instructed me to advise you that the confidential nature of our files will preclude complying…
  • p. 129 …concerning UFOs. That agency submitted a copy of that correspondence to the FBI, Norfolk. Files further…
  • p. 130 …Fort Eustis, Virginia, advised SA that files in her possession reflect that who was born, 2…
  • p. 135 …linked with the afore mentioned ufos? If not, are the files on these cases open to…
Your letter of January 20th has been received.

In response to your inquiry, the FBI has not conducted an investigation as you mentioned inasmuch as this would not come within our investigative jurisdiction. The presence of an Agent was simply to determine whether or not any violation may have occurred in which the FBI would have an interest, and for no other reason.

While I would like to be of assistance to you, the files of the FBI must be maintained as confidential in accordance with regulations of the Department of Justice and are available for official use only. In view of this, I am sure you will understand why I cannot be of any further assistance in this instance.

Sincerely yours,

2. Edgar Hoover

Cases discussed

About this file

FOIA release, from the fbi-vault collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. The text was read from the page images by an OCR model; expect the odd misread word. 148 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.