65_HS1-834228961_62-HQ-83894_Serial_438
Serial 438 of the FBI's 62-HQ-83894 file, copies of an Albuquerque FBI memorandum of May 8, 1964, on the April 24, 1964 Socorro, New Mexico, landing report, describing an FBI agent's site visit with ground depressions and burned patches.
Document Highlights
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Short overview
Serial 438 of the FBI case file 62-HQ-83894 contains FBI Albuquerque memoranda of May 8, 1964, on the “unidentified flying object” that Socorro police officer Lonnie Zamora reported seeing land and take off near Socorro, New Mexico, on April 24, 1964.
Why this is interesting
The first memo records what FBI Special Agent D. Arthur Byrnes Jr. found at the site that evening: four rectangular depressions about two inches deep, burned clumps of grass, and three smooth circular marks “as if a jar lid had gently been pushed into the sand”; Byrnes also vouches for Zamora as a sober officer “not given to fantasy.” The second memo is Zamora’s own detailed account: while chasing a speeding car he heard a roar and saw a bluish-orange flame, then found a shiny, aluminum-white object that at first looked like an overturned car, with two legs and two people in white coveralls next to it. As he approached, he heard thumps and a roar, the object rose on a flame, showed red insignia, and flew off low to the southwest without flame or noise; he afterwards found brush burning at the spot. The serial holds three copies of each memo and ends with a hand sketch of the site with measured distances between the depressions.
Selected passages
- “is well regarded as a sober, industrious, and conscientious officer and not given to fantasy.”
- “Inside the four depressions were three burned patches of clumps of grass.”
- “Saw two people in white coveralls very close to the object.”