Federal Bureau of Investigation

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Type	Organization
Also known as	FBI
On the Timeline	24 events, 1947–2022

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the United States' domestic intelligence and security service and its principal federal law-enforcement agency, part of the Department of Justice.^[2] It was founded in 1908 as the Bureau of Investigation and took its present name in 1935. It was led for 48 years by J. Edgar Hoover, director from 1924 until his death in 1972.^[2] During the 1947 flying saucer wave the Bureau briefly helped the Army Air Forces investigate reports, before agreeing in September 1947 to pass them to the Air Force instead.^[6] Its files, now published in its online reading room, the Vault, include the July 1947 Roswell teletype, the 1950 "Hottel memo", correspondence with the Air Force about sightings, and its 1988 inquiry into the Majestic 12 papers, which it declared "completely bogus".^[1][3][4][5]

History

In 1908 President Theodore Roosevelt had Attorney General Charles Bonaparte organise an investigative service reporting only to the attorney general. After Congress barred the Justice Department from borrowing Secret Service agents, the Bureau of Investigation was created on 26 July 1908 with 34 staff under its first chief, Stanley Finch.^[2] It became the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1935.^[2] Hoover created the FBI Laboratory, which opened in 1932, and pursued gangsters such as John Dillinger in the "War on Crime" of the 1930s. His long tenure became highly controversial, and after his death Congress limited future directors to ten years.^[2] Today the FBI has 56 field offices, more than 400 resident agencies and some 60 legal attaché offices abroad, and investigates more than 200 categories of federal crime. It reports to both the attorney general and the director of national intelligence.^[2]

The 1947 saucer wave

In the summer of 1947 the Bureau took part in the investigation of flying saucer reports. According to the UAP timeline published with Michael Shellenberger's 2024 congressional testimony, an Army Air Forces officer told the FBI's agent in charge in August 1947 that he suspected the Army or Navy was testing new technology that accounted for some sightings.^[7] A 1952 FBI memorandum later acknowledged that the Bureau had conducted "some investigations regarding flying saucers". It said that on 27 September 1947 the FBI had agreed with the Air Force to refer such cases to it.^[6]

The earlier version of this article said Hoover withdrew the Bureau within months, "reportedly irritated that agents were being asked to chase hoaxes and that the military would not share recovered discs". The sources read here confirm the September 1947 agreement to refer cases to the Air Force, but not those reasons.^[6]

The Roswell teletype

On 8 July 1947 the FBI's Dallas office sent a teletype to headquarters and the Cincinnati office. It reported that an Eighth Air Force official had said the object recovered near Roswell, a hexagonal disc suspended from a balloon by cable, resembled a high-altitude weather balloon with a radar reflector, and was being sent to Wright Field. It said no further FBI investigation was being conducted.^[3] In 1995 the General Accounting Office found that this teletype and a July 1947 base history were the only two government records from 1947 concerning the Roswell event. An FBI spokesperson confirmed its authenticity.^[3] See GAO Roswell records report.

Cooperation with the Air Force

Although the Bureau stepped back from investigating, its offices continued to pass sighting information to the Air Force. According to the Shellenberger timeline:^[6]

• A memo of 4 February 1948 said reports were to be passed to local FBI offices as well as evaluated by Air Force commanders.
• On 15 May 1952 Hoover wrote to the Air Force Office of Special Investigations about flying discs reported by witnesses.
• In 1957 the Kansas City office suggested to Hoover that a citizen's film of a UFO be obtained, sent to headquarters and coordinated with OSI.
• Yet in 1966 the FBI told members of the public that UFOs were not, and "never ha[d] been", within its investigative jurisdiction.

In 1950 Air Force officers seeking a Louisville newsman's film of a "flying disk" considered asking the FBI to make inquiries so as not to reveal the Air Force's interest.^[8] See Proposal to collect UFO home movies. In 1951, after the former Project Twinkle head Anthony Mirarchi spoke to the press, the FBI and the Air Force considered prosecuting him for breaching security regulations.^[9] In the 1950s a CIA officer suggested bringing in the FBI to look into the UFO writer Leon Davidson, though Haines found the record unclear on whether the FBI ever did so.^[4]

The Hottel memo

A 1950 memo by the FBI agent Guy Hottel passed on a claim about crashed flying saucers. When the FBI posted many of its UFO files online in 2013, the memo drew wide attention, and some ufologists linked it to the alleged 1948 crash at Aztec, New Mexico.^[5] The Bureau dismissed it as "a second- or third-hand claim that we never investigated".^[5] The Aztec story itself had been exposed in 1952 as a hoax by two con men, Silas Newton and Leo Gebauer, who were convicted of fraud in 1953 for selling devices said to use alien technology.^[5] The earlier version of this article described the memo as repeating a third-hand story about saucers and small bodies in New Mexico; the source read here describes it only through the Bureau's own characterisation. See Hottel memo.

Later files

• Cattle mutilations, 1979. In February 1979 the FBI's Albuquerque office reported to the director that the New Mexico police officer Gabe Valdez believed the Department of Energy and Los Alamos were covering up cattle mutilations. The Bureau also tracked Senator Harrison Schmitt's interest in the subject.^[10]
• Majestic 12, 1988. On 15 September 1988 an Air Force Office of Special Investigations agent contacted the FBI's Dallas office about a Majestic 12 document received by someone at a school. Because the papers were marked Top Secret, the FBI opened its own inquiry. After OSI told it on 30 November 1988 that no such committee had ever been authorised or formed, the FBI declared the document "completely bogus" and closed the case.^[11] In 1993 the FBI's information office told the author Nick Redfern that its Majestic 12 file was closed and labelled "Espionage".^[12] See FBI MJ-12 espionage file.
• The 2021 assessment. The FBI was among the agencies that contributed to the June 2021 intelligence assessment on unidentified aerial phenomena.^[13]

The earlier version of this article said the Vault holds files on contactee groups watched for possible subversion. That is not covered in the sources read here, which could not access the Vault itself.

On the UAP Timeline

• Garrett's suspicion of secret U.S. tests (1947) (19 August 1947) — An Air Force officer tells the FBI he suspects secret U.S. military tests explain some flying disc reports.
• War Department denial of a U.S. disc program (1947) (19 August 1947) — The War Department says it knows of no U.S. program that could explain the flying discs.
• Hillenkoetter MJ-12 memo of 19 September 1947 (19 September 1947) — A disputed memo attributed to CIA Director Hillenkoetter calls for a presidential directive and scientific study of the discs.
• Hillenkoetter letter of 24 September 1947 (24 September 1947) — A letter attributed to the CIA director allegedly names Air Force and Navy intelligence units as leads on recovered objects.
• Alleged CIA report on recovered disc technology (1949) (17 August 1949) — An alleged CIA report names a secret Defense Department program for exploiting recovered disc technology.
• Proposal to collect UFO home movies (1950) (6 July 1950) — An Air Force officer wants to quietly collect UAP home movies from the public with FBI help.
• MJ-12 Fifth Annual Report (1952) — A disputed, possibly hoaxed 'Majic' report describes the 1947 recovery of craft and five bodies.
• Mach 3 radar target alert (1957) (24 September 1957) — The Air Force intelligence chief warns of a radar target crossing the U.S. at Mach 3.
• Kennedy MJ-12 memo of June 1961 (28 June 1961) — An alleged Kennedy memo asks the CIA to review 'MJ-12' operations.
• FBI denials of UFO interest (21 July 1966) — The FBI tells citizens UAP have never been its concern, contradicting its own files.
• Torbitt Document (1970) — Author 'William Torbitt' claims a group ran counterintelligence for advanced aerospace programs.
• Unmarked helicopter claim (1975) (14 March 1975) — An Air Force officer says unmarked helicopters are sent to UAP-related sites.
• CIA Domestic Collection Division memo (1976) (26 April 1976) — A CIA teletype says agency staff monitor UAP unofficially.
• Gabe Valdez and the Dulce cattle mutilations (16 February 1979) — An FBI memo relays a police officer's claim of a cover-up of New Mexico cattle mutilations.
• Kit Green on MJ-12 (1988) (23 October 1988) — Kit Green tells Vallée that 'MJ12' was real.
• Edmund Gomez and Dulce (23 October 1988) — A New Mexico rancher claims he saw troops and an aircraft crash near Dulce.
• FBI MJ-12 espionage file (22 July 1993) — The FBI says it has a closed 'Majestic-12' file labelled espionage.
• Richard Weaver on MJ-12 (1993) (12 October 1993) — An Air Force colonel calls MJ-12 and its documents bogus but can't say how that was decided.
• Jim Westwood's MJ-12 disinformation theory (1 January 1999) — A former CIA consultant suggests the MJ-12 briefing document was a fake to fool the KGB.
• Army helicopters and cattle mutilations (2001) (24 February 2001) — Vallée hears of cattle mutilations linked to Army helicopters.
• Westwood on MJ-12 disinformation (2001) (5 May 2001) — A consultant tells Vallée the MJ-12 documents are disinformation.
• Gary Gochnour plasma aircraft patent (18 May 2006) — An Army veteran patents a saucer-shaped plasma aircraft design.
• Bill Richardson and the Roswell records (28 June 2008) — Bill Richardson says Los Alamos and the Pentagon refused his questions about Roswell.
• Mellon on the Majestic documents (September 2022) — Mellon says the 'Majestic' documents are very controversial.

References

Facts in this article are drawn in part from the Wikipedia articles “Federal Bureau of Investigation”, “Aztec crashed saucer hoax”, “Majestic 12”, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.