Project Blue Book case file (combined PDF)

Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.

# FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY

4. Just after taking the third picture of the UFO, Mr Helflin heard a vehicle approaching from the rear. Concerned that he might have parked in an awkward position, he turned around to see if there was enough road clearance for the vehicle to pass him. Noting that he was on the shoulder of the road, he immediately turned again to look at the UFO but found that it had "disappeared into the haze".

5. The Investigating Officer has noted some skepticism on the part of several individuals as to whether or not Mr Heflin could have observed the UFO, stopped his vehicle and taken three photographs - all in a 15 to 25 second time period. A check was made with people who are familiar with this particular model camera, and it was determined that an experienced man could easily take three photographs within a 12- second time period.

6. At the end of the working day, Mr Heflin returned to his office in the Road Department building and showed his photographs to several co-workers. They were subsequently filed in a desk drawer. After a few days (and after several duplicate photographs, conversations, comments, and general bull sessions), a friend of Mr Heflin who is a former employee of the Road Department convinced Mr Heflin that they should try to sell the photographs to LIFE Magazine. The friend was unidentified, however Mr Heflin's supervisor, Mr Kimmel, substantiated this bit of the story. The friend called the LIFE Magazine office in New York and was informed that they were interested. Subsequently, the friend mailed the pictures to the Los Angeles office and presumably the photographs were forwarded to the main office in New York (or Chicago?).

About two weeks later the photographs were returned from New York(?) directly to Mr Heflin without written comment. At about the same time the Los Angeles office telephoned Mr Heflin to say that the main office had declined to utilize the pictures "because it was too controversial at the time". Time passed and apparently more copies of the pictures were made and handed out to various friends and friends of friends, until most of Santa Ana was saturated with the UFO pictures.

One of these pictures was obtained by a druggist who then apparently showed it to a friend, a customer who worked for the Santa Ana Register. On or about 18 September, Frank Hall of the Santa Ana Register contacted Mr Heflin, borrowed the three original prints, returned the originals to Mr Heflin, and wrote an article which was published with the UFO picture (Nr 1) in the Santa Ana Register on 20 September 1965. Two of the three photographs were released by the Register on 20 or 21 September to UPI. One or both of these pictures and accompanying articles were published by various newspapers on 21 September 1965.