Aztec UFO crash
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🛸 Case
Contents 5
| Type | Case |
|---|---|
| Also known as | Aztec crash |
The Aztec UFO incident, also called the Aztec crashed saucer hoax, is a claim that a flying saucer crashed near Aztec, New Mexico, in 1948 and was recovered by the U.S. military with its small occupants. The story was spread in 1949–1950 by two con men and journalist Frank Scully, and was exposed as a hoax in 1952, though some UFO researchers later revived it.[1][2]
Origin of the story
In 1949, Frank Scully, a columnist for the entertainment newspaper Variety, wrote about a crashed saucer recovered in the American Southwest, and in 1950 he expanded the account into the bestselling book Behind the Flying Saucers. His sources were Silas Newton, an oil promoter, and Leo GeBauer, who claimed to be a scientist. They said several saucers had been recovered, along with the bodies of small humanoid occupants, and that the craft were made of unknown, extremely strong metal. On 8 March 1950 Newton gave a lecture about the saucers at the University of Denver.[1][3]
Exposure
Newton and GeBauer were in fact selling "doodlebugs", devices they claimed used alien technology to detect oil, gas and gold. In 1952 journalist J.P. Cahn of the San Francisco Chronicle obtained a sample of their supposed alien metal and found it was ordinary aluminium; he exposed the scheme in True magazine that year, and a 1956 True follow-up described other people they had cheated. In 1953 the pair were convicted of fraud after a complaint by one of their victims, the businessman Herman Flader.[1][4]
The Hottel memo
On 22 March 1950 FBI agent Guy Hottel, head of the Washington field office, wrote a brief memo to Director J. Edgar Hoover repeating an informant's story that three saucers with small bodies had been recovered in New Mexico. The memo does not name Aztec, but many researchers link it to the stories circulating at the time. In 2013 the FBI described it as a second- or third-hand claim that it never investigated.[1][5]
Revival
From the 1970s, researchers including Leonard Stringfield and Robert Spencer Carr revived the Aztec story, and later books argued it was real, including The Aztec UFO Incident (2012) by Scott and Suzanne Ramsey and Frank Thayer, which historian Jerome Clark criticised for ignoring contrary evidence. The town of Aztec held an annual UFO symposium from 1997 to 2011. Most researchers, including many who believe in other crash claims, regard Aztec as a hoax.[1][6]
References
- Aztec crashed saucer hoax — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- "Scully's Scrapbook of October 8, 1949" — Wikisource · en.wikisource.org · archived copy
- "Aztec (New Mexico) UFO Hoax", The Skeptic's Dictionary · skepdic.com · archived copy
- J.P. Cahn, "The Flying Saucers and the Mysterious Little Men", True (1952) · web.archive.org · archived copy
- "UFOs and the Guy Hottel Memo", FBI (2013) · fbi.gov · archived copy
- Jerome Clark, review of The Aztec UFO Incident (2012) · kevinrandle.blogspot.com · archived copy
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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