29 April 1965
Dr. Donald Menzel
Mrs Lyle Boyd
Harvard College Observatory
Cambridge 38, Massachusetts
Dear Don and Lyle:
At long last I am prepared to make a reply to your letter of February 19.
I am also enclosing a piece of the identical type of cardboard originally picked up by me at the landing site. The only difference between this cardboard and the one that picked up and turned into the Air Force is that the original piece had charred edges which may or may not have had any connection with the alleged landing. But that it was charred I will attest to. This sort of cardboard gets caught under many of the bushes in that area. As you know the winds there can get very high in the windy season and you not only see tumbleweeds batting across the county, but papers, old lunch boxes, packing crates, etc. also merrily batting along. These get wedged in under the bushes and stay there to weather sometimes for a year or more, I would judge. This cardboard, as you can see, has plainly been weathered quite some time and is hardly the kind that would have been used to fake a model of a spaceship.
I should mention that I discussed this whole matter with Major Quintanilla, and he and I are in agreement on what follows.
In my visit to Socorro I determined that Zamora had been urged by the Mayor to get into the movie and that he himself had been rather reluctant to do so. The movie is due to have its world premiere in Socorro, and I was hoping to get down to see it.
I don't think we can say too much about the flame which could be pretty subjective. A swirl of dust, etc. might from the distance have been interpreted as a flame. As far as smoke or a burning bush, etc., I couldn't get anyone to say this time that they had seen smoke or that anything was burning. Chavez insisted only on the fact that a greasewood bush appeared to be charred in spots or rather seared and that the searing was highly localized. Greasewood is notoriously hard to ignite, and a match or ordinary flame held to it hardly affects it. Chavez said that the burns appeared as though intense but localized flames had seared the grass and the bushes, but remarked that right next to a seared portion he found portions quite untouched. Again, I don't know how much credence can be placed on all the burning bush, etc. I think we must go to other major points.
The hoax hypothesis is, of course, one that suggests itself immediately. It is Quintanilla's and my opinion that both Chavez and FBI agent Byrnes must have been in on the hoax if we adopt the hoax hypothesis. They testified that there were not tracks in the immediate neighborhood and so that the hoaxsters must themselves have arrived and left by balloon! Had it been a hoax, certainly some paraphernalia should have been left around if the pranksters beat a hasty retreat. These gentlemen said that nothing of that short [sic] was found.
The wind was blowing strongly from the south, yet the object was reported to have gone on directly west. This would hardly fit a balloon, unless, or course, the directions are wrong. I questioned and requestioned the people on this point and couldn't shake them from that.
Pranksters could have hidden behind the knoll directly to the south, particularly had they lain prone. The dynamite shack is too small and too far away to have risked hiding behind it.
Opal Grinder does have a high school student working for him, and I talked with him at length. Teenagers generally hate Zamora's guts, but it was added that they hate all "fuzz" and that if they wanted to get even with Zamora, they would simply beat him up or do something more direct, like letting the air out of his tires or something with immediate results rather than resort to an involved hoax. Opal Grinder, of course, would have to be in on the hoax, also. He again told me the story of the tourist who said that he had sighted a strange object crossing directly in front of him on the road and landing in the gully, and toward which an instant or so later, he saw a police car going. I checked out the time on that, and it fits. Opal Grinder's wife was just preparing to go to the bank before it closed at six (apparently she takes the week's loot to the bank on Friday's just before they close). The sighting as you know, was supposedly at 5:45 P.M.
Some of the high school students do have walkies-talkies, but the hoax hypothesis does involve Chavez, Opal Grinder, and FBI agent Byrnes; the reported tourist would have to be mythical.
Zamora knew exactly where the dynamite shack was, because this is precisely why he left the road when he heard the noise. He though there had been an explosion in the dynamite shack.
The dynamite shack does not stand on legs as I have inspected it closely and have taken photographs. The shack and the reported UFO must be considered distinct.
Furthermore, I doubt very much whether a hoax could have been kept secret this long. If a hoax comes off well, perpetrators like to gloat a bit, and there would have been no point about getting even with Zamora if they couldn't have gotten some kudos out of it. La Paz once told me of an instance in which some college students wanted to get even with a geology professor so they planted a "meteorite" and contrived and explosion at some distant part of the state, and had this poor professor running around ragged chasing a meteorite. The perpetrators, however, were caught and expelled from school because they simply couldn't keep their secret. They "confided" to friends who in turn confided to others, and there you are.
But waiving all that aside, the things that would seem to militate against a hoax are the fact that no tracks coming to or going from the region were found, minutes after the sighting occurred; paraphernalia was not located, again within minutes; Chavez and the FBI agent would have to have been in on the hoax; and finally, the object took off crosswind. Paraphernalia I refer to would have been ropes, launching equipment, gas tanks, etc. which would have been difficult to dispose of in a few minutes and certainly without making any tracks. You say "the whole thing could have easily been planned to come off as it did." I think otherwise; it would have been quite difficult to have a thing like this come off, even as to the original timing. Zamora did not have a regular patrol route so his approximate whereabouts would not be known at a given time. I questioned Chavez on this, and Zamora patrols the whole town in an unscheduled fashion. By the way, there is no local UFO club. The fake UFO would have had to have been rather sizeable since I looked to Zamora line an overturned car, upended, first off from a considerable distance.
You suggest that when Zamora's car crested the hill, the hoaxsters triggered another blast of flame and released the UFO, and ran like hell. The terrain is such that when a car crests the hill, it suddenly comes upon the site. There simply would not have been time to wait until this happened to release the UFO and then hide; not unless there were elaborate ropes and wires running over some distance on the ground. As long as Zamora wears his glasses, his eyesight is good, and you must remember that he did not lose the glasses until after he saw the flame and thought the object was about to explode.
Your suggestion that we re-enact the event is more difficult than you think. I have not yet discovered how to make a balloon go off crosswind or to wait to release it and cause an explosion until someone was just one hundred feet away from me, and then disappear and hide "instantaneously." If the purported balloon release had been by means of delay mechanism, with the hoaxsters having had time to hide, then the release mechanism or some parts of it would have been left behind as tell-tale evidence.
Zamora is having his troubles; the boys he picks up are rather direct. Zamora stopped a teenage speeder, and the kid fired back at Zamora, "What are you giving me a ticket for? Don't you know a flying saucer might come down on you any minute?" You may say that this strengthens the hoax hypothesis, but on the other hand it is a perfectly natural remark for kids to make to a man held up to ridicule for having "seen things."
I come back also to the trenchant fact that Zamora was a thoroughly scared person. Chavez has remarked this to me a number of times that never in his long association with Zamora has he seen him in anything at all approaching the state he was in when Chavez joined him. I honestly don't think a small gas-filled balloon carrying a cardboard spaceship could have frightened a gruff, practical type like Zamora who is used to accidents, bloodshed, fights, and even murders. We all seem to agree that Zamora saw something that really and truly frightened him.
It seems much more likely to me that he saw a strange test craft which is super secret. The flaws in this reasoning are that if it is so super secret why would anyone be landing a half mile south of a town. Why, also, have we been unable to unearth from various agencies any classified clues as to such goings-on?
The year 1964 had fifteen other unidentified cases besides Zamora's. I investigated two others, one a very interesting incident which occurred to two graduate students in anthropology at the University of Wisconsin along with their mother-in-law and their kid sister. They were "buzzed" by some strange craft; after talking with them for nearly two hours, I came away still puzzled. A radio announcer in Toledo, Ohio, who when leaving the station at night saw a similar array of lights hover in a wheat field by the side of the road he was walking on.
There is no question that a mighty folklore is being built up in this whole field. Someday, it might be worthwhile to document all this for the benefit of historians who will look back on this area. I believe I have found one generalization which, being a generalization, is subject to all the ills of generalizations, but be that as it may: the people who believe in flying saucers are generally distinct from those people who report them. This is Hynek's Axiom No. 1 and is as full of holes as Swiss cheese, bit it has struck me many times that the "believers" are so thoroughly wishful in their thinking that they just don't need any personal experience to bolster their faith. Any newspaper clipping or any rumor is all the fuel they need. They have their fan clubs, and their meetings as they get a cheap thrill out of vilifying the Air Force and in "gee-whizzing" each other.
On the other hand, the best reports of UFO's that I have come across are from people who have had little contact with UFO material previously, remain skeptical even though they have had an experience that they can't understand, and are generally quite reticent about saying anything about it as first. Very frequently they are articulate and solid citizens, and, in talking to them, one gathers that they wish the whole thing hadn't happened to them. Time and again, they will write to ask that I please tell them what they saw, or they will write "I don't ever want to see anything like this again." They do not join UFO Clubs after their experience and generally do not care to talk about the experience. When they do make the mistake of talking about it, they find that ridicule is their reward, and although I can't document it, I feel certain that their social life is affected and that even jobs and promotions have been lost by their having reported their experiences in the first place.
It is reports such as these that constitute the phenomenon to which I feel more attention should be paid. It is easy to dismiss the case of birds, balloons, meteors, and the like, but when good citizens of average or better than average intelligence, and above all, sincere citizens report something puzzling, I think we have some sort of social obligation to do as good a job on it as we can. I don't like a mystery any more than you do and these series of "unidentifieds" down the years I regard as rather a blot on the escutcheon. Somehow, as scientists, we should be able to (if we are given the opportunity) come up with answers that would stand up in court, but I am still somewhat of a voice crying in the wilderness in this respect. The Air Force is not primarily a scientific organization, and its concern in these matters is to determine whether UFO reports contain any hostile elements. If they do not, it is not in the Air Force charter, so to speak, to conduct lengthy investigations as to the nature of the stimulus that gave rise to the report.
Of course, I have come to regard all this as rather a hobby; there is such a delicious variety of reports and of the people making them. As long as it does not take too much time, I enjoy talking to people who have made the reports and, of course, waste no time on them as soon as I discover they are off the beam. But take these two graduate students in anthropology at the University of Wisconsin: they live in a typical sort of house that young married graduate students live in, with some avant-garde paintings and a scattering of New Yorkers and the ubiquitous hi-fi set. They are people that you and I know and have associated with most of our lives. I honestly would like to be able to give their case the time I think it deserves. This would mean not only re-enacting the crime with them and visiting the locale of the sighting under similar temporal and meteorological conditions, but it might involve house-to-house canvass of people in the area. You made mention in your letter that "had the sighting been related to a bank robbery or murder some rather obvious clues might have been better followed." I heartily agree. If a good UFO case were related to a counterfeit or narcotics ring, think of the funds the government would spend in tracking down every possible clue. But I guess that it would be hard to justify the expenditure of taxpayers' money just to satisfy your and my curiosity. Some of the cases that we have classed as "ball lightning" should certainly have been followed up more closely, I think, because as in the Lock Raven Dam Case, ball lightning that is several feet in diameter and lasts many minutes might lead to the solution of the magnetic bottle problem ! Is it really possible for ball lightning to last so long? Naturally, the first thing is to find out whether it really was that large and whether it really did last that long. This could be a full time job!
Vallee's book will be published June 15. I have acceded to his request, somewhat reluctantly, to be quoted on the dust jacket to the effect that his suggestion that UFO's be given increased scientific attention should be given serious consideration. This is, of course, what I have been saying all along because a mystery makes me uncomfortable, and I don't like to have these unidentified things hanging around, particularly when they are capitalized on by the cultists, etc. I would really like to see a really good report made by several witnesses of good intelligence investigated to the bone and then to have a paper written on the case, much in the manner a M.D. would write up a case study of an extra large goiter or a rare tropical disease. I would like to see them written up as "The case of the Lighted Bridge" or "The Case of the Toledo Lights" or "The Case of the Baffled Anthropologists." Vallee's book, incidentally, is entitled Anatomy of a Phenomenon and makes for good reading.
Coming back to the Socorro case: I'm sorry that I could have been of any more help. Both Quintanilla and I find it impossible to dismiss it as a hoax unless we have some evidence that there was a hoax. I feel that if it was a hoax, this fact must leak out sooner or later if we keep in touch with some citizens of Socorro over a considerable amount of time. Perhaps this is our best means of attacking this particular problem. I am to visit there at least once a year (on my way to Las Cruces) just to see if anything has turned up. Sometimes confessions come years afterwards.
In the meantime, I am looking forward to seeing both of you in Cambridge this summer. As you may know, we have rented a house at 57 Avon Hill Street, I hope very much that we can spend some pleasant evenings, the three of us, arguing cases.
All is well here. The 24-inch in new Mexico gets delivered in about a month, and construction has started on the 40-inch for the observatory here.
Sorry to have been so late in answering your letter, but here it is anyway.
Sincerely yours,
J Allen Hynek,
Director
JAH;krf
Officer Zamora's Own Account
____, Socorro NM, _____, Officer Socorro PD about 5 years, office phone 835-0941, now on 2:00 P.M. to 10:00 P.M. shift.
About 5:45 P.M. 4/24/64 while in Socorro 2 Police Car (64 Pontiac white) started to chase a car due south from west side of Court House. Car was apparently speeding, and was about 3 blocks in front. At point on Old Rodeo Street (extension of Park St. south) near George Morillo residence (about 1/8 mile south of Spring Street, the _____ chased car was going straight ahead toward rodeo grounds. Car chased was a new black Chevrolet (it might have been _____ boy about seventeen). Chased car still about three blocks ahead. _____ alone.
At this time heard a roar and saw a flame in the sky to southwest some distance away — possibly a 1/2 mile or a mile. Came to mind that a dynamite shack in that area had blown up, decided to leave chased car go. Flame was bluish and sort of orange too. Could not tell size of flame. Sort of motionless flame, slowly descending. Was still driving car and could not pay too much attention to the flame. It was a narrow type of flame. It was like a "stream down" — a funnel type — narrower at top than at bottom. Flame possibly 3 degrees or so in width — not wide.
Flame about twice as wide at bottom as top, and about four times as high as top was wide. Did not notice any object at top, did not note if top of flame was level. Sun was to west and did not help vision. Had green sun glasses over prescription glasses. Could not see bottom of flame because it was behind the hill. No smoke noted. Noted some "commotion" at bottom — dust? Possibly from windy day — wind was blowing hard. Clear sunny sky otherwise — just a few clouds scattered over area.
Noise was a roar, not a blast. Not like a jet. Changed from high frequency to low frequency and then stopped. Roar lasted possibly 10 seconds — was going toward it at that time on the rough gravel road. Saw flame about as long as heard the sound. Flame same color as best as recall. Sound distinctly from high to low until it disappeared. Windows both were down. No other spectators noted — no traffic except the car in front — and car in front might have heard it but possibly did not see it because car in front was too close to hill in front, to see the flame.
After the roar and flame, did not note anything, while going up the somewhat steep rough hill — had to back up and try again, two more times. Got up about halfway first time, wheels started skidding, roar still going on, had to back down and try twice and rock. While beginning third time, noise and flame not noted.
After got to top, traveled slowly on the gravel road westwardly. Noted nothing for awhile . . . for possibly 10 or 15 seconds, went slow, looking around for the shack — did not recall exactly where the dynamite shack was.
Suddenly noted a shiny type object to south about 150 to 200 yards. It was off the road. At first glance, stopped. It looked, at first, like a car turned upside down. Thought some kids might have turned over. Saw two people in white coveralls very close to the object. One of these persons seemed to turn and look straight at my car and seemed startled — seemed to jump quickly somewhat.
At this time I started moving my car towards them quickly, with idea to help. Had stopped about only a couple seconds. Object was like aluminum — it was whitish against the mesa background, but not chrome. Seemed like O in shape and I at first glance took it to be overturned white car. Car appeared to be up on radiator or on trunk, this first glance.
The only time I saw these two persons was when I had stopped, for possibly two seconds or so, to glance at the object. I don't recall noting any particular shape or possibly any hats, or headgear. These persons appeared normal in shape — but possibly they were small adults or large kids.
Then paid attention to road while drove towards scene. Radioed to sheriff's office "Socorro 2 to Socorro, possible 10-44 (accident), I'll be 10-6 (busy) out of the car, checking the car down in the arroyo."
Stopped car, was still talking on radio, started to get out, mike fell down, reached back to put up mike, then replaced radio mike in slot, got out of car and started to go down to where I knew the object (car) was.
Hardly turned around from car, when heard roar (was not exactly a blast), very loud roar — at that close was real loud. Not like a jet — knows what jets sound like. Started low frequency quickly, then roar rose in frequency (higher tone) and in loudness — from loud to very loud. At same time as roar saw flame. Flame was under the object. Object was starting to go straight up — slowly up. Object slowly rose straight up. Flame was light blue and at bottom was sort of orange color. From this angle, saw the side of object (not end, as first noted). Difficult to describe flame. Thought, from roar, it might blow up. Flame might have come from underside of object, at middle, possibly a four feet area — very rough guess. Cannot describe flame further except blue and orange. No smoke, except dust in immediate area.
As soon as saw flame and heard roar, turned away, ran away from object but did turn head toward object. Bumped leg on car — back Fender area. Car facing southwest. Glasses fell to ground, left them there. ran to north — car between him and object.
Object was oval in shape. It was smooth — no windows or doors. As roar started, it was still on or near ground. Noted red lettering of some type (see illustration). Insignia was about 2 1/2' high and about 2' wide I guess. Was in middle of object . . . Object still like aluminum-white.
After fell by car and glasses fell off, kept running to north, with car between me and object. Glanced back couple of times. Noted object to rise to about level of car, about 20 to 25 feet guess — took I guess about six seconds when object started to rise and I glanced back. I ran I guess about halfway to where I ducked down — about fifty feet from the car is where I ducked down, just over edge of hill. I guess I had run about 25 feet when I glanced back and saw the object level with the car and it appeared about directly over the place where it rose from.
I was still running and I jumped just over the hill — I stopped because I did not hear the roar. I was scared of the roar, and I had planned to continue running down the hill. I turned around toward the object and at same time put my head toward ground, covering my face with my arms. Being that there was no roar, I looked up, and I saw the object going away from me. It did not come any closer to me. It appeared to go in straight line and at same height — possibly 10 to 15 feet from ground, and it cleared the dynamite shack by about three feet. Shack about eight feet high. Object was traveling very fast. It seemed to rise up, and take off immediately across country. I ran back to my car and as I ran back, I kept an eye on the object. I picked up my glasses (I left the sun glasses on ground), got into the car, and radioed to Nep Lopez, radio operator, to "look out of the window, to see if you could see an object." He asked what is it? I answered "It looks like a balloon." I don't know if he saw it. If Nep looked out of his window, which faces north, he couldn't have seen it. I did not tell him at the moment which window to look out of.
As I was calling Nep, I could still see the object. The object seemed to lift up slowly, and to "get small" in the distance very fast. It seemed to just clear the Box Canyon or Six Mile Canyon Mountain. It disappeared as it went over the mountain. It had no flame whatsoever as it was traveling over the ground, and no smoke or noise.
Feeling in good health. Last drink — two or three beers — was over a month ago. Noted no odors. Noted no sounds other than described. Gave directions to Nep Lopez at radio and to Sergeant M. S. Chavez to get there. Went down to where the object had been and I noted the brush was burning in several places. At that time I heard Sgt. Chavez (N.M. State Police at Socorro) calling me on radio for my location, and I returned to my car, told him he was looking at me. Then Sgt. Chavez came up, asked me what the trouble was, because I was sweating and he told me I was white, very pale. I asked the Sgt. to see what I saw, and that was the burning brush. Then Sgt. Chavez and I went to the spot, and Sgt. Chavez pointed out the tracks.
When I first saw the object (when I thought it might be a car) I saw what appeared to be two legs of some type from the object to the ground. At the time, I didn't pay much attention to what it was — I thought it was an accident — I saw the two persons. I didn't pay any attention to the two "legs?" The two "legs" were at the bottom of the object, slanted outwards to the ground. The object might have been about three and a half feet from the ground at that time. I just glanced at it.
Can't tell how long [I] saw object second time (the "close" time), possibly 20 seconds — just a guess — from time got out of car, glanced at object, ran from object, jumped over edge of hill, then got back to car and radio as object disappeared.
As my mike fell as I got out of car, at scene area, I heard about two or three loud "thumps," like someone possibly hammering or shutting a door or doors hard. These "thumps" were possibly a second or less apart. This was just before the roar. The persons were not seen when I drove to the scene area.
Just before Sgt. Chavez got to scene, I got my pen and drew a picture of the insignia on the object.
Socorro Revisited
On Saturday August 15, I drove with ______ whose car I had rented for the day, to Socorro from Las Cruces, New Mexico. We left Las Cruces shortly before 7:30 in the morning, and arrived in Socorro about 10:30 A.M.
The object of this visit was to obtain an overview of the feelings and opinions in Socorro about the Zamora's sighting of April 24th, after several months had passed, and to find out if the principals had any afterthoughts or changes which they wished to make in their story, how they were now regarded by the townfolk, and what if any was the official opinion.
The net results of the visit vehicle involved talking once again with Zamora, Sergeant Chavez, Captain Holder, the editor of the local paper, and seven other townspeople, was much the same as before. Zamora, if anything, is more reticent and withdrawn. The more articulate Sgt. Chavez still firmly believes in Zamora's story, and I found no contradictions between his partial retelling of the story and the original telling of his story in late April. Although I made a distinct attempt to find a chink in Zamora's armor, I simply couldn't find anyone, with the possible exception of a ______ who has a house fairly near the site of the original sighting, who did anything but completely uphold Zamora's character and reliability, and I again talked with people who had known him since childhood.
I revisited the site: the markings are still them, but very much obliterated. and this time I was able to take stereo photographs of the general terrain. I was impressed more than before with the illogical nature of the landing site. If an ordinary aircraft had been in trouble it could have landed on the quite flat mesa just to the side of the gully, and no pilot, unless his craft were completely disabled, would have chosen to land in the rocky and uneven gully. If he had been that disabled, he certainly would not have been able to take all shortly thereafter.
Returning to the chronological account: when I arrived, neither Chaves or Zamora was available, having been on duty most of the night. I talked with the radio dispatcher and a "cowboy type" townsman who said that he spent much of his time in mountains around the country. Both of these men were very curious about what the Air Force had found, and both volunteered that things had quieted down very much, but that there was still a big belief in Zamora's story. Apropos of the Air Force's story, my statement throughout the day was always the same: the Air Force is still interested and working on it; they had not found as yet a specific, logical explanation, and the results of the chemical analysis (everybody was curious about that) was that the rocks were ordinary minerals unaffected by the landing, and that the charred materials showed only results of conventional combustion. Considerable surprise throughout the day was expressed that the Air Force had not made a more detailed analysis of the possible fuel or mechanism of the burning of the bushes, and also, incidentally, why the Air Force had not made compression tests of the ground in the area to see how much downward thrust would have been necessary to produce the observed markings.
Once again coming in the chronological story: I armed myself with about a dollar's worth of dimes and started to make telephone calls, but first ______ and I visited the office of the local newspaper, the ________. Both the owner, ________, and the editor, were there, and we looked up the back numbers of papers around that time, and especially what was said after I had left. The editor remarked that there had been several UFO officials who had come to visit them, and that one had remarked, "What sort of line of bull has Hynek and the Air Force been handing you?" He also stated that they had received many letters, one from as far away as Spain. Naturally, be wanted a statement mentioned above. The editor made one statement to the effect that they could still give full credence to Zamora's story, despite the fact that there had been some opinion in town that it shouldn't he taken seriously. But, both the owner and editor said that they would continue to believe the story unless it. were proved otherwise. Of course, it is to their advantage to give full credence to the story, since it sells more papers.
* * *
My story was that I was passing through, going from Boulder to Las Cruces, and that since I was passing through, I stopped to say hello and to see if there had been any recent developments. At lunchtime I lined up a number of interviews by phone for the afternoon. The results will follow:
We first talked to ________, who is the grandmother of ______ the latter of whom was a student in my astronomy class this spring. He chose as his term paper topic "The Socorro Flying Saucer," and it was his grandmother, _________, who browsed around the town and picked, up a lot of additional information. She had a long talk with _________ and _________ told us again yesterday afternoon that _________ firmly believed that _________ had been very thoroughly frightened and that he had seen something supernatural. Visiting at the _________ home (the _________ family is apparently one of the recognized and older families, in town, and they live in quite a hacienda), a local parish priest was also visiting at the time, and from him in the course of conversation, we got perhaps one of the best bits of character reference on Zamora. The Father stated that in all his experience, he had not came across one person who cast any aspersion on ________ which, he remarked, was very unusual for Socorro. _________ herself is obviously a very level-headed, established woman in the society of Socorro, and when she went about investigating the Zamora case, it appeared that she had immediate access to anyone she wished. Various members of the faculty of the New Mexico School of Mines, for instance, came to her immediate assistance in answering various questions, as did Sgt. Chaves and various townspeople. One thing that she mentioned which bears on the character reference of Zamora should be noted: the baggage master at the station, a man in his sixties who apparently acts as a depository of character references for all people in town, stated that he had known Zamora for all of Zamora's life and that he was one of the most dependable people whom he'd ever known. In short, if I had any hopes of finding some chinks in Zamora's character armor, I was certainly unable to do so.
After we left the _________s, we then went to talk to Chaves, who was then on duty, and I talked to him privately for five or ten minutes after which time, by prearrangement, _______ came in. Chaves was just about the same as he was originally, still quite articulate about the thing, and when we stated that one of the main points that continued to impress us about the whole situation was the consummate fright that Zamora had experienced (which everybody continued to tell us about), Chaves admitted that Zamora had been frightened, but indicated that perhaps part of that was prudence on Zamora's part — after all, if you think that something is going to explode, it is only expedient to make yourself scarce.
After a lengthy conversation which really added very little new to the original story, he radioed for Zamora to come in from his rounds and in a few minutes, Zamora was with us. He seemed much more reticent than previously and never actually completed a full sentence. I think that there are at least two possible interpretations here, one being that, deep in his own, mind, he may have realized that he overstated the case originally, or perhaps has even solved it, but, in view of the ingrained fear of possible ridicule, etc., he is keeping it to himself, or, I feel more probably, he is simply tired of the whole thing and rather wishes that it had never come up in the first place. At least nothing that he said would indicate that he does not continue to believe that something really unusual happened.
By this time the sun was over the yardarm, and we retired to a nearby bar, where we found the editor of the _________. We had a long discussion with _________ there who stated again his basic faith in the story and in Zamora's character, although he did say that, for a while there, Zamora did seem to be enjoying some of the publicity. This, however, is contrary to most of the other evidence about Zamora's reaction to the publicity.
_________ offered to go with us to see Mr. _________, the operator of the _________ Gas Station, and we heard the story of the itinerant tourist from _________ himself. The time was shortly before 6 o'clock, because _________ said that he was hurrying to get to the bank before it closed at 6 P.M. on that Friday. He stated that this was e of the reasons why he did not pay more attention to the tourist's story. However, he said that the tourist said something to this effect: "Your planes fly awfully low here — one of them liked to knock me off the road just about when I was passing your sign coming into town." The _________ gas sign is almost in line with the gully where the craft landed, and the logical direction from which it would have come, considering markings, etc. The tourist said that he thought that it might be a craft in trouble, and figured this was so because he saw a police car going out toward where it had landed. This would have placed the time of the craft over the tourist's car at approximately 5:35 or 5:40 P.M. This coincides, as well as we can see, with the time that _________ was chasing a speeder. It indicates that the craft did not remain in the gully very long, and therefore could not have been disabled to any major extent. _________ said then to the tourist that there are a lot of helicopters flying around the place, to which the tourist answered that, if this was a helicopter, it certainly was a strange one. _________ promised to keep his eyes open for the tourist, but the chances of this is small.
After visiting _________, _________ and I went to the original site at approximately the same time of day that the original sighting occurred, and we went over the remaining marks and took some photographs, etc. We also photographed the apparent size of a man seen from the point along the road where Zamora first stated that he had sighted the object which he thought was an overturned car. We also took photographs of how a large car would look from that direction. _________ was particularly impressed with the fact that the marks remained after three and a half months of weathering, and it was he who wondered whether compaction tests had been made of the soil.
We then returned to have coffee with Captain Holder, the uprange commanding officer for White Sands, to see whether he had anything to add after this many months had passed. Captain Holder is still quite enthusiastic and really fairly enamoured of the idea of strange crafts. It was Captain Holder, you will remember, who, with Mr. Burns of the FBI, made the original measures between the markings, and we call recall that although the figure was drawn poorly, when it was redrawn according to dimensions given, it was found that the diagonals of the quadrilateral intersected at exact right angles. _________ pointed out that there is a well known theorem which stares that if the diagonals of any quadrilateral intersect at right angles, then the points lie on a circle, the center of which is called the mean center of the figure. _________ also pointed out that one of the burned marks was directly at this mean center.
Captain Holder was particularly interested in what the Air Force had flown in 41 states, and is also an instructor in flying. She comes into the picture only because, in the course of discussions with her, she turned up a UFO story of June 2, 1960 which was duly reported to the Air Force and should be in our files. I append as Exhibit A her rather interesting and extensive writeup in the _________. Both _________s are "true believers" after their sighting which, however, I feel must have been an optical phenomenon in view of the projectory and acceleration,
Before we left, we called _________, the retiring president of the _________ School of Mines, who had nothing further to offer. Before our visit with Captain Holder, on coming back from the site, we visited a _________ who lives fairly close to the site of the alleged landing. _________ had been in his back yard just over the hill from the sighting place, and maintains that he heard no loud roar and has remained skeptical about the whole thing. He claimed that if there had been an explosion such as Zamora claims to have heard, he _________ certainly would have heard it. However, this does not necessarily follow, because _________ was directly down wind from the gully, there was a very strong southwest wind blowing, and the gully is on the opposite side of the hill from where _________ was listening. This, of course, can make a tremendous difference in ability to hear. Further, there are trucks passing along the highway quite close to _________'s house, and be undoubtedly is used to hearing backfires, and truck rears of one sort or another. He was the only person whom we talked to, however, who tended to disbelieve Zamora's veracity, indicating that it probably was a hoax. This solution is not acceptable to the present writer, because there are just too many bits of evidence that militate against this hypothesis.
_______ and I arrived back in Las Cruces at 12:30 A.M. on Sunday morning, August 16th.
Report on the Trip to Socorro-Albuquerque-Socorro, March 12-13, 1965
Left Las Cruces 7:45, A.M., Friday, March 12. Arrived Socorro 10:30 A.M. and had an immediate conference with Mr. Ted Ralpor, Editor of the El Defensor Chieftan, the Socorro newspaper. Our first subject was the movie that had been made by the Empire Films whose address in Hollywood is 7417 Sunset Blvd. A name connected with it is Morry Malkin; a phone number is AC 213, 876-6800. Malkin is coming back to Socorro in a few weeks to arrange for the world premiere of the UFO movie in Socorro. This will he a white tie affair probably! Do you think the Air Force official consultant should be present at this world premiere? He does not think so. It would be exciting, but it would also give needless significance and importance to the picture. I think we had at best ignore it.
However, I learned through the grapevine that the picture is to have a Washington, D.C. preview in about three or four weeks and that Senator Symington is interested in it. We had better get Maston Jacks office, or whoever is running the show now, on to this if at all possible. That is one preview that I should attend if at all possible. The scuttlebutt has it that the picture contains movies taken in Milan, Italy of a UFO landing with a little man getting out of it. Rumor also has it that the Empire Film Studios paid $40,000 for that Milan, Italy filmstrip. Apparently they have sunk quite a bit of money into this picture and expect to have it shown in many movie houses throughout the country and then shortly thereafter to release it for TV use. The film runs 86 minutes.
I found the situation in Socorro largely unchanged. Zamora is still generally believed, but the current feeling seems to be that there is no question that he saw something real, but that it was most likely a, super-secret device being tested. I was asked many times whether I was really sure that the U.S. government didn't have a super-secret project. I pointed out that if this were the case, that it would be unlikely that we would be testing it on a global basis and the UFO phenomenon, apart from the Socorro case, is certainly not limited to the United States.
After these discussions in the editorial offices, Ray nor and I went our for lunch and asked Sgt. Chaves to join us. While we were waiting for him, I showed Raynor the letter from Menzel and his comments about parts of it were, "Childish." But we went over it point by point, and likewise Chaves did. Chaves' reaction to the letter was rather strange. He had sort of a resigned, almost pathetic look on his face, and said, "I really feel sorry for Lonnie. He's had to take an awful lot."
Then he told of a recent case where Zamora was arresting a kid for speeding, and the kid said, "What do you want to give me a ticket for? Don't you know a flying saucer might come right down on us now?" (or something like that.)
I asked him what the whole movie situation had been concerning Zamora and how it had affected him. He said that Zamora had not wanted to be in the picture, but it was at the Mayor's insistence, via his boss, that he consented to do so. I can't quite believe this myself. When I talked to Zamora later, he seemed to be reasonably pleased about being in the movie. Clearly, with a world premiere in Socorro, it would be a strange human who did not get some kick out of the thing like that.
I will come back to the Menzel letter later because I discussed it with Dr. La Paz, who knows Menzel well. That was the next day in Albuquerque. I purchased five newspapers which had various stories about the movie or about related matters. The papers were for Tuesday, February 9; Thursday, February 25; Tuesday, March 2; Tuesday, March 9; and Thursday, March 11. The first one I think you have; it states, "Socorro Part of Film on UFO's Completed; Zamora's Account Jibes With Sixteen Verified Sightings." The February 25th issue contains a front page story on a UFO sighted over Gallup which, as far as I can see, is nothing more than a meteor. The March 2nd issue contains a lovely story about "Scientist Indicates Why UFO's Choose Areas for Landing." One Chan P. Thomas of Los Angeles, "a former government scientist," is supposed to be the scientific advisor to Empire Film Studios. His theories as to why UFO's land in New Mexico lack, shall we say, a scientific solidity in my opinion as he is not listed in the American Men of Science, and I have no knowledge of him personally. There was same question as to whether he should be asked to come to Socorro to give a public lecture on the general subject. Unfortunately my advice was asked, and I strongly urged that they not do so unless they find out considerably more about the gentleman's qualifications first. His principal reason for selecting Socorro seems to be the following: "The main one can be directly attributable to the subsurface geology. I would suspect there is a multiplicity of faults, or — areas wherein sedimentary strata have been tilted to the vertical with the inter-layer demarcations being plains largely in the north-south direction. The effects such subsurface deceptions have upon the energy distributions between the earth's core and the Van Allen radiation belt gives the key to the answer." He also states that he has stumbled onto many answers of heretofore unanswerable riddles: What is gravity; Why do planets orbit and rotate; Why do stars burn in nuclear fires; Is the speed of light really a velocity boundary; Can a ship be built which would do everything people who claim they have seen flying saucers say that those vehicles do?" I hardly need say more.
The same issue, however, contains a story about "UFO Sighted Streaking Over City." The observer, a Socorro woman who asked that her name be withheld (I have her name, however, a Mrs. Williams,) said the 'perfectly round object' with deep yellow or gold light traveled at tremendous speed. She saw the object as it came over Socorro Mountain, and as it passed southeast over the city, it did not seem far above the street light" I was unable to get in touch with this woman, but according to Raynor, this did not have a trail. It seemed to be just a light.
Would you be kind enough to send about ten blank forms to Mr. Ted Raynor, Editor, Socorro El Defensor Chieftan, Socorro, New Mexico, and he can send one of these forms to Mrs. Williams to fill out. The results will be, probably, a meteor. I tried to get in touch with her the next day, but she seemed to be at some sewing circle.
March 9 issue has a story "Film Studios Praise Cooperation Here in Film on UFO's." The letter received from Mr. Michael Mustow, a letter sent to Mayor Holm O. Burson, stated, "Phenomena 7.7 is now completed. It will be viewed by countless millions of people throughout the world. It will open the door to facts heretofore shrouded in secrecy. It will prepare the entire human race for a better knowledge of the universe and possible neighbors who may have been observing our earth for centuries."
Finally, the Thursday, March 11, issue has a short article on "Zamora Saw a UFO, Not Flying Saucer." This was in response to a request by Zamora to please say in the paper that he never saw a flying saucer land, only a UFO. In part the article states, "Zamora says he was trying to cooperate with persons who asked him about the UFO, which he described as egg-shaped, and he wishes that they would not ask him about a flying saucer which he says he has never seen and cannot describe. The policeman says that the account here stands unchanged from that he gave on April 24 and the following day." Raynor showed me a letter from Rev. Guy J. Cyr S.M. (Society of Mary) Sacred Heart Rectory, Lawrence, Mass. dated November 26, 1964. It is a long letter concerned with intelligence on other planets and trying to make out case for civilization on the moon. The letter was rightfully published.
I left for Albuquerque about 2:30 P.M., arriving at the Institute of Meteoretics, where Dr. Lincoln LaPaz was waiting for me, at 4:00 P.M.
I gave LaPaz a copy of Vallee's book and also the Menzel letter which he took home and by the next morning had completely read the manuscript and the letter. LaPaz is still very concerned about the green fireball incident. Another one was sighted this last Christmas night. According to LaPaz, the official investigation never satisfactorily cleared up the question of why these peculiar uranium green fireballs should have chosen New Mexico to fly over and avoid being seen in other states and why they were so peculiarly grouped. LaPaz is thoroughly convinced that both the green fireballs and Zamora's sighting were observations of tests of advanced vehicles being produced by some project. even more secret that the Manhattan Project. I am afraid that LaPaz is unshakable from the hypothesis. His primary criticism of Vallee's book was that Vallee has ignored the green fireballs which, as far as LaPaz is concerned, represent the most important part of the UFO phenomenon. It is always just a matter of viewpoint!
LaPaz showed me his excellent meteorite collection and spent much time in general conversation.
He was engaged for the evening, and we met again early the next morning during which time we took the opportunity to meet with the President of the University of New Mexico, Dr. Pokejoy, and to establish good relations between astronomy at Northwestern and astronomy at New Mexico.
Although LaPaz was impressed with Vallee's book, be felt that his impressive list of references was padded with too many references to unpublished articles or statements. He feels that it is not really a scientific book on the subject (I guess that about in the year 1980 I will have to write a really scientific book on the subject).
Coming now to the Menzel letter, I will consolidate the opinions of LaPaz, Chaves, and of Raynor. I did not show the letter to Zamora because I think it merely would have upset him.
Page 1. I asked Zamora about the reported flame when he first heard the explosion, when he was still on the highway. He denies ever having said anything about a flame at that time, only at the time when he saw it rise from the ground. As a matter of fact, he never mentioned anything like that to me, originally, but this did appear in Captain Holder's original report, and he purportedly got this in conversation with Zamora. However, I think this was in the original newspaper writeup. I will have to agree with Menzel that this part of Zamora's evidence is very mixed up and suggests some embroidery of the original sighting either by Zamora or by Captain Holder when excitement was running high.
Page 2. I can't agree with Menzel here. When he wears his glasses, his vision is okay. He had the glasses on when he saw the flame at the time the object was preparing to rise. Now this whole question of the "burning bush" : I visited the site again on Saturday, with Raynor and Shrode, the owner of the radio station, and at no time was any bush or grass seen to be burning, and nobody seems to confirm any actual smoke. All that they seem definitely to agree on is that the green snakeweed and the green greasewood, which are notoriously hard materials to ignite, showed evidence of having been charred, as though they had been seared by a hot flame and not burned in an ordinary fashion.
As far as kids having it in for Zamora, there is ample evidence that this is the case. But it was also pointed out to me by Opelgrinder (sp. ?) and his assistant and by several others, that it is a national phenomenon for teenagers to hate "fuzz" and the statement by Wesley Johnston, a high school senior who works at Opelgrinder's, is particularly significant. He said that many of the high school kids didn't like Zamora, but that he, Zamora, was not important enough to do anything about it. He said that if the kids wanted to get even with Zamora they would simply thrash him or do something to his car, but that an elaborate hoax would not be the way they would get even with him. One should remember that before the time of the sighting there had been no talk in the Socorro region of unidentified flying objects. This would not have suggested itself as a means of getting back at Zamora. Apparently the Socorro teenagers are much more direct in their methods of reprisal for the "fuzz." As far as the cardboard is concerned, Menzel's conjectures here fall completely flat. The cardboard was portions of very old and weathered corrugated paper from a packing box. There are many samples of this all over the region. There is a city dump not too far away, and when the wind, which blows tumbleweeds all over the place, gets hold of some of this stuff, it scatters the papers pretty well all over the whole region. Many of the bushes, I noticed particularly this time, have papers caught on their underneath side. In any case, some of this paper was still there, and I shall send Menzel a sample of what this cardboard really looks like. I would say that the cardboard had been there through many rains and had suffered successive dryings. The original piece I picked up was definitely charred. This was the piece I sent to you along with soil samples, you will remember.
One rather interesting item is that the burning bush has recently exuded some sap, and one of the movie people took this to Los Angeles to 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 speeder was a deliberate decoy, who signaled to the hoaxers 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 it after Zamora got there and have 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 would have been a place for hoaxers 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 provocation 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 plainly visible from the site of the sighting, but about 500 feet to the west.
Zamora does not have any particular schedule for patroling the town. He has the run of the whole town.
There is no UFO Club in town.
No paraphernalia of a hoax were ever found. It would be rather hard to have done away with all telltale evidence, such as tubes of helium, release mechanism, etc. Finally, it was LaPaz's feeling that had it been a hoax, it surely would have leaked by now. He told me of an elaborate hoax that was played on one of the geologists at Ohio State University when he taught there. The students had it in for this guy and contrived an explosion in a nearby town, and the crater which it produced was reported than as a meteorite crater. It had everybody excited for a while and would have succeeded except those who got away with it were so pleased with 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, it would seem that any youngsters that hated Zamora sufficiently to have gone to all this trouble to perpetrate a hoax would now be very envious of the glory he 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 a strange object to Opel Grinder. This could not very well have been part of the hoax since the tourist was a complete stranger just passing through. Furthermore, if Zamora is to be believed at all, the object rose vertically and took off horizontally to the west and was observed as it passed well over the dynamite shack and disappeared over the pearlite mill. This is entirely too big a hoax for high school students to perpetrate.
Perhaps I spent too much time an this matter, but the letter was a very convenient 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 about 1:00 P.M. Raynor, Shrode, and I visited the site and took some more samples, particularly of the sap, and I took a few more pictures, particularly of the dynamite shack to show Menzel. Then I went back to the radio station and tried to call the Empire Film Studio, but it was closed. In view of the fact that the prevailing opinion in the town still is that what Zamora saw was not the result of hallucinations or of a hoax, but a secret test vehicle, what has become of my suggestion to have this left as an "exercise for the students"? It would be a marvelous exercise for neophyte intelligence officers.
There is also the opinion expressed in Socorro, and expressed to me a number of times in the past, by several people (and also by LaPaz), that I am merely a part of a super-smoke screen and so is FTD and Wright Field, and that the whole Project Bluebook is a grand cover up for something the government does not want discussed. Best way to give a lie to this, of course, is to point out that if this were the case, the U.S. government should also have been responsible for the sightings in France, Brazil, Spain, and in England. Maybe the U.S. government has really gone global! On that happy thought I conclude my report.
Sincerely yours,
J. Allen Hynek
P. S. I now have a slightly infected finger from the thorns on the bush that was originally charred. The bush drew blood when I attempted to get some soil samples. Undoubtedly, the finger will now wither away from radiation burns. Unfortunately, I do not have interplanetary Blue Cross coverage!
Accueil
