Documents / Official release
This Federal Bureau of Investigation file section, compiled in 1947, collects newspaper clippings, memoranda, teletypes and letters about the summer's flying disc reports. It includes a July 1947 memo on a Grafton, Wisconsin priest's reported disc, which the Milwaukee office learned was a circular saw with wires, possibly a prank. Other items cover a disc found at Black River Falls, reports from Texas and Oregon, a San Diego memorandum on visitors, and Hoover's acknowledgments forwarding information to the War Department.
From the source:Release of 2026-05-08 Incident: N/A, N/A. The FBI's 62-HQ-83894 case file includes investigative records, eyewitness testimonies, and public reports concerning Unidentified Flying Objects and flying discs documented between June 1947 and July 1968. The records include high-profile incident accounts, photographic evidence from sites like Oak Ridge, TN, and technical proposals regarding potential propulsion systems. Additional topics include convention programs, researcher accounts, and extensive media coverage from the period. This file is partially posted on FBI vault with more redactions and some pages missing. Included here is the complete case file with several newly declassified pages and only minor redactions.
“Wilcox”1 page
;~:bJft;;MMemorfndum • UNITED STA' S GOVE~NMENT Director, FBI DATE : July 17, 1947 SAC, Los Angeles~M J SUBJ ECT: RECOVERY OF 11 FLilNG DISC"- -- .,.OORTH HOLLYV.00D, CALIFORNIA, JULY 9, 1947 A On the evening of July 9, 1947, a report was received at the Los Angeles Office that a so-called "flying disc" had landed in the vicinity .of Radford and Magnolia Streets in North Hollywood, California, the contraption being briefly described as approximately 30 inches in diameter, all metal, disc shaped, and having a radio antenna . It was reported to have burst into flames upon landing. At the time of the report the disc was being held at the Valley Fire Department in Van Nuys, California. SA RICHARD D. AUERBACH went to the fire department immediately at which time it was found that a number of people had gathered including news paper reporters and photographers who were taking pictures of the disc . Battalion Fire Chief WALLACE E. NEWCOMB advised Agent that at approximately 10:30 P. M., an unknown woman called on the telephone and excitedly reported that the disc had dropped into her garden where it began to flame, her residence being located at 11858 Magnolia Boulevard, North Hollywood. A fire department truck was sent there and put out the flaming object with the fire hose, after which the object was taken to the fire station. SA AUERBACH thereafter arranged to transport the disc to the office. The device is briefly described as consisting of two convex steel discs approximately 2 feet in diameter, fused together at the outer edge and fastened together in the center by a hollow cylindrical connection. A vertical galvanized iron fin was screwed to the top of the disc, and a short length of pipe closed at one end ran from the outer circumference into the interior of the contraption. What appeared to be a radio tube was installed in the center of the top side. The contraption had a total weight of appr0ximately 20 pounds. At the Bureau Office a series of photographs were taken of the device from various positions, and a set of these photographs are being forwarded herewith for the Bureau' s inspection and information. The "flying di~c" ~hereafter turned over to Major COURTNEY VI. 11 7 HEMPSTEAD, A.C . , G-2, F;1>-ject w definitely a hoax. and under no circumstances could have flown under its own power.
Official release, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 185 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.