65_HS1-834228961_62-HQ-83894_Section_8
Section 8 of the FBI's 62-HQ-83894 file, June 1954 to November 1957, covering field-office reporting on civilian saucer groups such as the Detroit Flying Saucer Club and CRIFO, a record of an October 1955 interview with Senator Richard Russell, and November 1957 reports.
Document Highlights
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Short overview
Section 8 (serials 344–384) of the FBI’s flying saucer file 62-HQ-83894, covering July 1954 to November 1957: field office reports on contactee lectures and saucer clubs, correspondence with Air Force and Navy offices, replies to citizens’ letters and memoranda on a sighting reported by Senator Richard B. Russell’s party in the Soviet Union.
Why this is interesting
In 1954 the Cincinnati office reports on a contactee lecture and a civilian research newsletter, and Hoover forwards to Air Force special investigations information from Navy officials about a woman in Maine who said she received messages from “outer space” by thought transmission. The Detroit office reports on a local flying saucer club under an espionage caption, on information volunteered by others; in December 1954 headquarters sees no need for further investigation and in January 1955 states that flying saucer matters fall under the Air Force, not the Bureau. In October and November 1955 FBI memos summarize CIA debriefings of Senator Russell’s party, who saw glowing objects rise steeply near Baku; the CIA found that, apart from one colonel’s testimony, the observations could probably be explained as aircraft or missiles. In November 1957 the National Security Council asks the FBI to interview a Detroit man who described a vertically rising vehicle and a stalled tractor engine he had seen in 1944 as a German prisoner of war.
Selected passages
- “All agree object was rotating during its rise along its initial steep trajectory.”
- “All other observations can probably be explained as steep-climbing aircraft or missile or exhaust of normal jet aircraft in a dive”
- “In view of the facts set forth in referenced letter, no further investigation of this matter need be conducted by your office at this time”