Frank Scully

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Contents 5
Frank Scully
Author Frank Scully
Author Frank Scully Photo: Unknown author Unknown author · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons
TypePerson
On the Timeline2 events, 1947–2011

Frank Scully (28 April 1892 – 23 June 1964) was an American journalist and columnist for the entertainment magazine Variety. He is best known for Behind the Flying Saucers (1950), the first book to claim that crashed flying saucers and the bodies of their crews had been recovered by the US government. His sources were later exposed as confidence tricksters.[1]

Career

Author Frank Scully (right) and confidence man Silas Newton (center) demonstrate ideas about magnetism and earth's orbit using Scully's book Behind…
Author Frank Scully (right) and confidence man Silas Newton (center) demonstrate ideas about magnetism and earth's orbit using Scully's book Behind… Photo: Feoffer , (original photograph by David Mathias, Denver Post ) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Scully studied journalism at Columbia University, worked for The New York Sun and became a regular contributor to Variety. He wrote humorous books, including the Fun in Bed series for people recovering from illness, and was active in Californian politics in the 1930s.[1]

The Aztec story

Frank Scully
Frank Scully Photo: Acme Photo · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

In 1949 Scully wrote two Variety columns claiming that dead extraterrestrials had been recovered from a crashed flying saucer. His 1950 book Behind the Flying Saucers expanded the story, describing a crash near Aztec, New Mexico, and relying on an unnamed scientist whom he described as having "more degrees than a thermometer".[1]

In 1952 and 1956 True magazine published articles by San Francisco Chronicle reporter John Philip Cahn which showed that Scully's sources were confidence tricksters who had hoaxed him.[1] Scully nevertheless repeated material about crashed saucers in a 1963 book.[1]

Legacy

Illustration of official papers and files
Illustration: official papers and files. An artist's impression drawn for this site, not a photograph of the event.

Scully was made a Knight of the Order of St. Gregory the Great by the Pope in 1956. He died in 1964.[1]

On the UAP Timeline

Skyline of Roswell, New Mexico, looking south along Main St
Skyline of Roswell, New Mexico, looking south along Main St Photo: Vasiliymeshko · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

References

This page was last edited on 31 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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