65 HS1-834228961 62-HQ-83894 Section 003

a.
August 19, 1947
cation and should be in no way, carried as a news story and refused to furnish
any infonnation regarding these reports . He further stated that he advised
the Boise .Statesman shortly before, or at the time KENli"ETH ;L"qNOLD left Boise
to come to Tacoma to check on the flying disc stories with DAHL and CRIS!~N,
that ARNOLD should not come as the entire story was a hoax.
The following information was obtained from PAU~TZ,
4513 South 7th, Tacoma, ·'Tashington, Proctor 8416, a ~porter for the Tacoma
Times:
It .ia.s the Tacoma Times paper which first 4 ssued a story
on August 2 ~nd subsequent stories intimating that the B-25 which crashed at
Kelso, '7ashington on the early morning of ~ugust 1, had been sabotaged or shot
down because of the fact that it carried flying disc fragments . L.UITZ stated
that on Thursday, July 31, at approximately 11:30 A. r . he received an anonymous
phone call in which the caller stated that iG'"ff'ETH ARNOLD and Army Intelligence
officers were meeting in room 502 of the Finthrop Hotel to check on the flying
disc story from which fragments were obtained on Maury Island . LANT'l stated he
turned around to speak to his editor and ,·,hen he picked yj:Y'the phone again the
line was dead. He stated that the caller asked for BUW":}1crnJR.TIE, a reporter
on the Tacoma Times who was out at the time of the call. He stated that BURT
.rJc~lliRTIE called ARN0ID at room 502 in the ,,inthrop Hotel and Vias advised by
ARN0ID that he could furnish no infonnation as he was there on a Government
mission. LANTZ stated that on Friday, August 1, between 11:00 A. 11. and noon,
he received another phone call for BURT Mc '1JRTIE in which the anonymous caller
stated that he might have some info:nnation for him. LlliTZ asked the caller if
he was not the same party that had called the previous date and he said yes.
The caller then related that at that moment there was a big meeting in progress
in ARNOLD ' s room, 502, in the ,rinthrop Hotel; that the B- 25 which crashed that
morning in Kelso was carrying flying disc fragments from California and that
llcChord Field officials had stated the plane was sabotared or shot down. The
caller then hung up after making some statement to the effect that he was a
switchboard operator. LWTZ stated that he v1ent to the ,finthrop Hotel on Friday
about noon and found that there was no male operator on duty. He stated he then
went to room 502 and ARN0ID answered the door and that Captain IlUL J . SMITH,
United Airlines pilot, was on the phone . Li\NTZ stated that he heard ...JITH make
a statement to the effect that the infonnation must be very strictly confidential.
He stated that there were one or two others in the room besides S"'ITH and ARNOLD,
but that he could not identify them. He stated that ARN0ID told him he could
maRe no statement and that he had attempted to check the story with various people
on ~aury Island with negative results . He stated that about 3:30 P. l'. , Friday,
he wrote a story regarding the mysterious informant and called ARNOLD at his
hotel room, stating that he had written~hi story and that ARNOID had better
check it. He stated that he talked to .:CRRELLO, the United Press a'ireman,
Tacoma, who advised that the story soun ed fantastic . LANTZ stated that about
5:30 P. M. , Friday, August 1, an anonymous caller called TED 1 iORRELLO, the
- 4 -