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Project Blue Book desk file, Socorro (217 pages)

The Black Vault (Rob Mercer collection) · 217 pages · text from the file's own layer

This 217-page Project Blue Book desk file on the 24 April 1964 Socorro, New Mexico sighting by policeman Lonnie Zamora comes from the Rob Mercer collection. It contains the Blue Book record card, which carries the case as unidentified pending more data, along with Foreign Technology Division messages and resumes and a narrative of the sighting. It also holds inquiries about lunar modules, helicopters and VTOL craft, soil and radiation findings, and a letter by J. Allen Hynek rejecting Donald Menzel's hoax hypothesis.

  • p. 10 UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECT REPORT SOCORRO, NEW MEXICO, 24 APRIL 1964 On April 24, 1964, a Socorro…
  • p. 14 …Zamora observed on 24 April at Socorro, •ev Mexico. '!be obJect or vehicle displayed :flight cha…
  • p. 16 NARRATIVE OF SOCORRO, NEW MEXICO SIGHTll~G 1 24 APRIL 1964 .. Shortly after 5:30 pm…
  • p. 22 …The object wich vas observed in Socorro, New Mexico exhibited the characteristics of' a heliocopter or…
  • p. 23 …18 May 1964 TSgt Moody called Mr Opal Grinder at 835-9916 in Socorro New Mexico…
  • p. 28 …about a hundred miles north of Socorro, New Mexico . Cloud Gap personnel did no.t have…
  • p. 100 .>, REPORT ON SOCORRO NEW MEXICO TRIP On TUesday, April 28, 1964, in resp6nse to a call…
  • p. 106 …while in Socorro, my old friend, Dr Jack Whothmen, President of the New Mexico School of…
  • p. 126 …on the April 24, sighting at Socorro, New Mexico, made by Lt. Zmmora. ,, Project 1964 I…
  • p. 127 …Biebennan 601 Fitch Avenue Socorro. New Mexico 87801 / ·-Rob Mercer
  • p. 133 …in !rom all over the state ot New Mexico and other parts at tne i } west…
  • p. 134 …found no evidence i:> near the central New Mexico · of radio-active material in the 1town…
  • p. 136 ASTRONOMER TO NEW MEXICO Flying Objects Area Probed SOCORRO, N.M.-(jp)-An !Wright-Patterson Air…
  • p. 137 …ALBuQUERQUE JOURNAL SOCORRO, NEW MEXICO 24 Apr 64DATE: 29 APR 64 Air Force UFO Expert to…
  • p. 138 …28 APR 64 . • • SOCORRO NEW MEXICO DATE: 24 APR 64 A rash of unidentified fly- e…
  • p. 139 …THE ALBUQUERQUE TRIBU'"}.'E SOCORRO, 1\"EW MEXICO 21; Apr 64DATE:27 APR 64 cF/ying…
  • p. 141 …his investigation of a Socorro policeman's report that he saw a mysterious ilying ob-- ject…
  • p. 143 …LA MADERA, NEW MEXICO SANTA FE (UPI) -New Mexico's peremial addictiot to flying saucers has…
  • p. 149 …Socorro Sightings · 25 Apr 26Apr Z,Apr 23 Apr .ALBtJ~ 1 NEW MEXICO AREA Socorro LaMadera…
  • p. 150 …TO THE SOCORRO, NEW MEXICO SIGHTING: 1. 26,Apr 64, Grants, nev Mexico sighting of a…
  • p. 154 …re- Zamora's reliability as _a ity ~New: Mexico who has !icem a n Lonnie Zamora…
  • p. 155 …landings m New MeXlCO m the know about as much about 1t the Socorro site and…
  • p. 159 …23 APR 64 'Flying Saucer' Reports Spread In New rdexico SANTA FE (UPI) - New Mexico's…
  • p. 160 …f' Socorro. UFO experts from < different parts of the country ~:, are in New Mexico to investi…
  • p. 161 …28 APR 64 1 'Flying Saucer' Reports Spread In New ~lexico SANTA FE (UPI) - New Mexico…
  • p. 163 ' , PRICE lOc SOCORRO: Inhabited Since 1540 Home of the Famed New Mexico Institute of Mining & Technology…
  • p. 167 …branch at Wright- Patterson A I r Foree Base, Ohio, ia tn New 'Mexico to as…
  • p. 168 …he fired six ehots at one of New Mexico's unidentified flying objects. ; State Policeman Tom…
  • p. 171 …William Con- wide open New Mexico desert, again, he will still run away nor and Sgt…
  • p. 172 …sightings had New llke a mountam ~Ion's," as coloring, marking, character- Mexico State Police, local…
  • p. 173 SANTA FE (UPI) -New Mexico's perennial addictior to flying saucers has taker hold of the…
  • p. 176 …Right on the edge o! White Sands Missile 1 Range on the 'Wide open New Mexico…
  • p. 177 …David Moody of the office already was in New : Mexico and would assist Dr. · Hynek in…
  • p. 178 …when on the pre- . ' Tlo\18 day at Socorro. New Mexico a policeman. Mr. Lonnie Zamora…
  • p. 181 …F~ ?>.. '.r ..... ·APRIL 24, 1964, Socorro, New Mexico APRIL 24, 1964, Socorro, New Mexico - on April…
  • p. 182 …of unidentified fly- \< ing object sightings had New~ Mexico State Police, local law r e n…
  • p. 184 …David Moody of the office already was in New 1 Mexico and would assist Dr. 1…
  • p. 185 …My husband and I had talked about the thing the people saw in New Mexico, but…
  • p. 199 …His theories as to why UFO's land in ·New Mexico lack, shall we say, a…
  • p. 200 …Ted Raynor, Ed1tor, Socorro El Defensor Chieftan, Socorro, New Mexico, and he can send one of…
9
mechanism, etc. FinallY, it was . LaPaz's feeling that had it been a hoax,
,
it surely would have leaked by now. He ~ld me of an elaborate hoax that
there. The students had it in for this guy and contrived an explosion in
· · .,and the crater which it • oduced .
al nearby to~ was reported then as a meteorite crater. U had
T = · I ~~
everybody excit·ed for a while and waul~ have succeeded exceptA. who got away
. I
with it were so pleasedfowith themselves that they began to brag a bit and
got caught. I. do not believe that the Socorro high school students could
.have kept a secret this long. Furthermore, 't would seem that any youngsters
that rated Zamora sufficiently to have gone to all this trouble to perpetrate
a hoax would now be very envious of the glory be is getting in a movie and
all the publicity he has received and would certainly burst his bubble right
now. Finally, there is the matter of the tourist who reported s strange object
to O,elgrinder. This cou.ld not very well have been part of the hoax since
the tourist was a complete stranger just passing through. Further~more,
if Zamora is to believed at all, the object rose vertically and took off
horizontally to the west and was observed as it passed well over the dynarilite
shack and disappRXeeared over the pearlite mill~ This is entirely too big
a hoax for high school students to perpetrate.
Perhaps I spent too much time on this matter, but the letter was a very
ronvenient device for re-discussing the whole situation. Sgt. Chaves indicated
that Menzel should have been a science fiction writer. Actually LYle Boyd
has done some of this, and I believe also Menzel has.
I left Albuquerque in the late morning on Saturday and arrived in Socorro
abtut 1:00 P. M. Raynor, ~nrode, and I visited the site and took some more
samples, particUarly of the sap, and I took a few more pictures, 9articularly
of the dynamite shack to show Menzel. Then I went back to the radio station
I ,Rob Mercer

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