File 042 · 1948–1952 · UFO hoax

Aztec 1948 and the Hottel memo

A 1950 FBI memo repeats a rumor of three crashed saucers in New Mexico. The story came from men later exposed as con artists selling an oil-finding device.

Background

In March 1950 Guy Hottel, head of the FBI's Washington field office, sent a memo to the FBI director. It said that an Air Force investigator had told him three so-called flying saucers had been recovered in New Mexico, each carrying small humanoid bodies. The memo said the source had no details on how the objects were found, and that it was passed on as an item of interest.

The story is usually linked to the rumored crash of a saucer near Aztec, New Mexico, in 1948. It was spread by Silas Newton, an oilman, and his associate Leo GeBauer, who also used the name Scientist X. They described the crash in lectures and to the press and claimed that a magnetic device recovered from it could be used to find oil.

What the record shows

• The Hottel memo is a genuine FBI document, available in the FBI Vault; it is a statement of what an unnamed source said.
• The memo itself says that no further information was available about how the objects were found.
• Reporting in 1952 traced the Aztec story to Newton and GeBauer and to their business in devices claimed to detect oil.
• The two men were later prosecuted for fraud over a device they sold as an oil finder.

Timeline

• 1948 The alleged crash at Aztec, New Mexico, is said to have taken place.
• 1949–50 Newton lectures about the crash; the story reaches the press and the FBI.
• 22 Mar 1950 Hottel's memo repeats the rumor to FBI headquarters.
• 1952 Journalist J. P. Cahn investigates the story in the San Francisco Chronicle and True magazine.
• 1953 Newton and GeBauer are prosecuted in Colorado over the oil-finding device.

Checking the claims

The claim: an official FBI document proves that the US recovered crashed saucers with bodies. What the document is: a secondhand report of a rumor, written in a carefully hedged way. A genuine document that records a rumor is not evidence that the rumor is true.

The story's origin matters. The Aztec tale was told by people who stood to gain from it, and its details came from them. When a reporter looked into their claims, the sources did not hold up. The memo is therefore a good example of why the origin of a claim must be checked before the document that repeats it is treated as proof. The FBI file does not show that agents verified the story, and later FBI and Air Force records treat the saucer rumors of that period with caution. No Air Force or FBI record released so far describes a verified recovery at Aztec.

Claimed, but not shown

No physical evidence of a crash at Aztec has ever been produced, and no official record confirms the bodies described in the memo.

Verdict

Sources

• FBI Records: The Vault, 'Guy Hottel' memorandum (22 March 1950)
• J. P. Cahn, 'The Flying Saucer Swindle', True magazine (1952)
• Colorado court records on the prosecution of Silas Newton and Leo GeBauer (1953)

Connected files (red threads)

• Roswell — Another crashed-saucer story that began in New Mexico
• The 1947 flying disc wave in the FBI file — Same FBI file, same wave of rumors
• Majestic 12: the forged documents — Another document-based UFO claim that fails verification

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