Documents / FOIA release

FBI file: UFO, UFO Part 14

Federal Bureau of Investigation · 141 pages · text by OCR

This FBI file release, Part 14 of the Bureau's UFO file, collects correspondence and memoranda from 1960 to 1968. Much of it concerns Joseph Perry of Grand Blanc, Michigan, whose moon photograph appeared to show a saucer-like object. The FBI passed the slides to Air Force OSI at Selfridge AFB and said repeatedly that it was not investigating. The file also covers a Denver lecture about space people, an anonymous Dallas informant, a NICAP subcommittee, and form replies stating that UFOs fall outside FBI jurisdiction.

  • p. 1 …Office of Special Investigations, Air Force, dated 4/21/60. Enclosed herewith are 5 copies of…
  • p. 4 …One copy of this memorandum has been made available to the Office of Special Investigations (OSI…
  • p. 9 …Office of Special Investigations Air Force Attention: Chief, Counterintelligence Division From: John Edgar Hoover, Director Subject…
  • p. 10 …were immediately furnished to the Office of Special Investigations, Department of the Air Force, Selfridge Air…
  • p. 11 …Special Agents of Detroit Office on 4-12-60 informed Perry that the photographs he had…
  • p. 14 …been immediately furnished to the Office of Special Investigations, Department of the Air Force, Selfridge Air…
  • p. 15 …John Edgar Hoover, Director Office of Special Investigations Air Force Subject: UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECT JOSEPH PERRY…
  • p. 16 Office of Special Investigations Air Force that we do not gather evidence concerning unidentified flying objects…
  • p. 17 Office of Special Investigations Air Force furnished a copy of his letter to the President. Make…
  • p. 27 …THIS MATERIAL WAS TURNED OVER TO TWENTYFIFTH OFFICE OF SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS AIR FORCE BASE OSI' DETACHMENT…
  • p. 51 …of it, as well as copies of your enclosures, to the Director of Special Investigations, The…
  • p. 54 …The suggestion should be made that he may wish to contact the Office of Special Investigations…
  • p. 56 …that he should contact the Office of Special Investigations of the Air Force, San Francisco, California…
  • p. 60 …This letter was furnished the Office of Special Investigations by the Ground Observer Corps (GOC) Coordinator…
  • p. 63 …The other Government agency referred to in the memorandum is the Office of Special Investigations, Lowry…
  • p. 115 …A copy of your communication is being forwarded to the Office of Special Investigations, Department of…
This memorandum summarizes Bureau policy regarding unidentified flying objects commonly referred to as flying saucers."

Reports of "flying saucers" became prevalent in 1947 and at request of Army Air Forces Intelligence, Bureau agreed to cooperate in investigation of flying discs. By Bureau Bulletin Number 42, 7-30-47, field instructed to investigate each instance to determine if bona fide sighting, a prank, or hallucination. Coordination with Army through liaison channels in field and at SOG.

By letter 9-3-47 from Headquarters Air Defense Command addressed to Commanding Generals of the various Air Forces it was noted original intent of Air Force was that Air Force would interview responsible observers and Bureau would investigate incidents of so-called discs found on ground. Letter stated services of the FBI were enlisted in order to relieve the numbered Air Forces of the task of tracking down all the many instances which turned out to be "trash can covers, toilet seats and what not." As result, Bureau Bulletin Number 57 of 10/1/47 instructed "all future reports connected with flying discs should be referred to the Air Forces and no investigative action should be taken by Bureau Agents." Letter of 9-27-47 advised Air Force that personnel and time of FBI could not be dissipated in this manner (62-83894-121).

SAC Letter Number 36, 3-25-49, advised that from reliable source it had been determined the USSR had been experimenting for four years on unknown type of flying disc. SAC Letter listed for field data desired by Air Force in connection with reports of sighting of flying saucers. Letter again called attention to fact no investigation should be conducted by Bureau but if reports made, information should be taken and furnished to Air Force.

and SAC Letters and cautioned that the type of information desired by Air Force should be obtained from complainants and furnished promptly to CSI locally. This SAC Letter again reminded field investigation is responsibility of Air Force.

69-83894=9:

REC-77

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. 141 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.