User:Feoffer/sandbox UFO conspiracy theories

Donald Keyhoe, 1950
On December 26, 1949,  True magazine published an article by Donald Keyhoe titled "The Flying Saucers Are Real".

The article examined the Mantell UFO incident and quoted an unnamed pilot who opined that the Air Force's explanation "looks like a cover up to me". The Gorman Dogfight and the Chiles-Whitted UFO encounter were also described. The article cited a supposed report from Air Material Command and claimed a "rocket authority at Wright field" had concluded saucers were interplanetary. Concern over a public panic, of the kind that supposedly occurred after the 1938 War of the Worlds broadcast, is cited in the article as a possible motive for the cover up. Citing historic sources, Keyhoe speculated that similar sightings have likely occurred for at least several centuries.

The True article caused a sensation. Though such figures are always difficult to verify, Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, the first head of Project Blue Book, reported that "It is rumored among magazine publishers that Don Keyhoe's article in True was one of the most widely read and widely discussed magazine articles in history." When Keyhoe expanded the article into a book, The Flying Saucers Are Real (1950), it sold over half a million copies in paperback. In March 1950, the Air Force denied "flying saucers" exist and further denied that they are US technology being covered-up.

Frank Scully, crashed saucers and dead alien bodies - 1950
Army recovery of a crashed disc. little humanoid bodies.

In October and November 1949, Scully published two columns in Variety, claiming that dead extraterrestrial beings were recovered from a flying saucer crash, based on what he said was reported to him by a scientist involved. His 1950 book Behind the Flying Saucers expanded on the theme, adding that there had been two such incidents in Arizona and one in New Mexico, a 1948 incident that involved a saucer that was nearly 100 ft in diameter.

In 1952 and 1956, True magazine published articles by San Francisco Chronicle reporter John Philip Cahn that purported to expose Newton and "Dr. Gee" (identified as Leo A. GeBauer) as oil con artists who had hoaxed Scully.

Kenneth Arnold and Maury Island, 1952
The Coming of the Saucers.

George Adamski and the Contactee movement -
In George Adamski's Book, Behind The Flying Saucer Mystery (Original title: Flying Saucers Farewell) Adamski says that only "some" of these pre-1950 UFO crashes were reported in Frank Scully's book "Behind the Flying Saucers" Adamski clearly stated this in his book Behind The Flying Saucer Mystery

Writing in 1957, one author observed "Some saucer believers say there is a sinister conspiracy of "silencers" hiding an interplanetary secret and muzzling persons who learn the truth.  Many believe military security is concealing new secret devices or startling developments in magnetism, gravitation, and space travel."