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Project Blue Book Socorro file (direct PDF)

Wikimedia Commons (USAF Project Blue Book) · 168 pages · text by GLM-OCR

This Project Blue Book file on the Socorro, New Mexico sighting of 24 April 1964 compiles an Air Force record card and a large set of press clippings. The clippings cover policeman Lonnie Zamora's report of an egg-shaped object with four landing marks and scorched brush, plus J. Allen Hynek's investigation and follow-up reports from La Madera, Edgewood and elsewhere. An Air Force summary says soil and brush analysis found no foreign material, radiation or propellant, that the case remains open, and that later related sightings were explained or found to be hoaxes.

  • p. 7 …was here today to examine the secluded hill where a Socorro policeman reported seeing a mysterious…
  • p. 15 …that she saw a fire in the hills southwest of Socorro Sunday night, where city officer…
  • p. 24 …pm, in an unpopulated area full of hills and gullies and covered with sagebrush. Following is…
  • p. 31 …The tourist also commented that he had seen a police car heading up the hill. This…
  • p. 57 …He also observed the police car heading up the hill toward the spot where the UFO…
  • p. 76 …ago south of Socorro on an isolated hill remains unsolved. And to help find clues to…
  • p. 78 …travel a little-used road over several hills and gullies. After two or three efforts to…
  • p. 98 …You suggest that when Zamora's car created the hill, the hoaxers triggered another blast of…
  • p. 101 …As you may know, we have rented a house at 57 Avon Hill Street. I hope…
  • p. 115 …Made three attempts to climb hill. First sighting of object. Stopped car for a couple of…
  • p. 124 …Could not see bottom of flame because it was behind hill. No smoke noted. Noted some…
  • p. 126 …I was still running and I jumped just over the hill--I step because I did…
  • p. 127 …ran from object, jumped over edge of hill, then got back to car and radio as…
  • p. 129 …He turned off the road and proceeded to a point up a hill where he could…
  • p. 133 …He thus came up upon the object from behind the hill and from the side, so…
  • p. 138 …The tourist also commented that he had seen a police car heading up the hill. This…
  • p. 150 …One year ago Saturday Zam investigated what sounded two explosions in the hills so of Socorro…
  • p. 151 …an unidentified flying object on a lonely hill-just south Socorro. Among results were an Force…
  • p. 152 …reports." Dr Hyek visited yesterday the secluded hill where Socorro policeman Lonnie Zamora reported seeing an…
  • p. 154 …was here today to examine the secluded hill where a Socorro policeman reports seeing a mysterious…
  • p. 161 …As Zamora moved closer he lost sight of the object behind a hill. He continued driving…
  • p. 166 …short "men." Zamora continued driving up the hill to get a closer look. When he stopped…
  • p. 167 …HYNEK VISITED TODAY THE SECLUDED HILL WHERE SOCORRO POLICEMAN LONNIE ZAMORA REPORTED SEEING AN EGG-SHAPED…

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have it analyzed and found it radioactive! I have also obtained some of the sap which I shall send to you and maybe 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 speeded 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 does not hold water. Although some of the students do have walkie-talkies, the fact of the matter is that the wind was from the south, and the object went west. A balloon released at that time would have gone directly over town. Furthermore, they would have had to release after Zamora 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.

would have been a place for hoaxes to have hidden over on the other side of the knoll, particularly had they lain prone.

None of the people I talked with gave any credence to the hoax hypothesis, generally considering it to have been far above the capabilities and motivations, and provocations of the hoaxers. Chaves says that Zamora never described the thing as looking like a balloon. Zamora knows exactly where the dynamite shack is. It is pàainly 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 UFIO Club in town.

No paraphernalia of like a hoax were ever found. It would be rather hard to have done away with all tell-tale evidence, such as tubes of helium, release

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Document, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 168 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.