Editing Uncovering the Aztec UFO incident (section)

==A hoax or a cover-up?==
The journey of the Aztec UFO crash incident has not been an easy one.

In 1949, the account was published by Scully in his Variety columns. A year later, he published the book “Behind the Flying Saucers.” However, after the book was published, two of the story’s witnesses, Silas Newton and Leo Gebauer, were accused of concocting their accounts so they could sell fake alien technology in a money-making scheme. The public’s faith in the story fell apart after that.

The Ramseys and Thayer, however, through their research, believe that it may have gone down a different way.

“Gotta remember that from 1952 until about 1986, no one would touch the Aztec incident,” Thayer said. “It was poisoned. No UFO researchers would touch it because it was considered to be a hoax hoisted off on the public by conmen. This was taken apart in our book. We realized the government engineered that story to sink Aztec and they were willing to ruin the lives of two, three people, to make sure it got covered up. … You cannot refute the evidence that we have put in this book.”

Documentation from government sources such as the March 22, 1950, Hottel memo, which is the most viewed document in the FBI Vault, have also bolstered belief in UFO stories.

The memo, written by Guy Hottel, the head of the FBI field office in Washington, D.C., reads as follows:

“An investigator for the Air Force stated that three so-called flying saucers had been recovered in New Mexico. They were described as being circular in shape with raised centers, approximately 50-feet in diameter. Each one was occupied by three bodies of human shape but were 3 feet tall, dressed in metallic cloth of very fine texture. Each body was bandaged in a manner similar to the blackout suite of speed flyers and test pilots.


According to Mr. --------- informant, the saucers were found in New Mexico due to the fact that the Government has a very high-powered radar set-up in that area and it is believed the radar interferes with the controlling mechanics of the saucers.

No further evaluation was attempted by SA --------- concerning the above.”

The memo was addressed to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and indexed in FBI records. While many people originally believed the memo was referring to Roswell, some believe the document was actually in reference to Aztec.

“That is one of many, many, many interesting documents. The only critique it’s had over the years - it doesn’t mention Aztec,” Scott said. “And we have many documents that specifically mention Aztec.”

One such government documentation they’ve found is of a sting operation that occurred in downtown Denver between the FBI and the Army Counterintelligence Division. The agencies set up the sting to buy photos from a man peddling photos to an alleged reporter for $2,500.

“Just as the buy was about to go down, the FBI and Army CID - that’s Counter Intelligence Division - stepped in. And they specifically in that FBI report say the gentlemen was trying to sell pictures of the Aztec flying saucer.”

“The bottom line on that one is the government took the Aztec saucer very seriously,” Thayer said. “If there was no Aztec saucer they would not be been willing to pony up a bunch of money to buy some photos whether they existed or not.”