Project Blue Book desk file, Socorro (217 pages)

8
have it analy~ed and found it radioactive! I have also obtained some of
the sap which I shall send to you) and· rmybe Moody can try it out on his
· super-duper counter. It is odd that no one seemed to have bothered to
have checked this area originally for radiation. Or did they?
Menzel 's· idea that the speedetft was a deliberate decoy, who signaled to
the hoaxes by walkie-talkie who then released a balloon with a cardboard
or aluminum flying saucer attached thereto simply do~s not hold water.
Although some of the students do have walkie-talkies, the fact of the
matter is that whe wind was from the southland t he object went west.
A balloon released at that time would have gone directly over town.
·.t
·Furthermore, they would have had to rel ease!after .&anora got there and
~·~watched the object on the ground for a short time • . A previous release
would simply have had it well over town by the time zamora got to the
spot.
The dynamite shack does not have legs.
There
l:k would have been a place for hoaxes to have llidden over on the other
side of the knoll, particularly had they lain prone~
uN1ne of the people I talked with gave any credence to the hoax hypothesis,
generally considering it to have been far above the capabilities ~, motiva-
tions, and provocation~ of the hoaxers. Chaves says that Zamora never described
the thing as looking like a baJLoon. Zamora knows exactly where the dynamite
shack is. It is pdainly visible from the site of the sighting , but about
500 feet to the west.
Zamora does not have any particular schedule for patrolling the town. He has
the run of the whole town.
There is no UFto Club _in town.
No paraphernalia of ~ a hoax were ever found. It would be rather hard
to have done away with all tell-tale evidence, such as tubes of heliu ~ , release
IRob Mercer