The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has an online database of all it’s documents and files available to the general public — seems strange, though. However, there is a two-paragraph note from 1950 called the Hottel memo; it’s the FBI’s most (controversially) viewed file. The FBI never followed up on it. Now, some say it proves the existence of UFOs. Huh?
Related media: FBI Vault Reveals UFO Memo
The FBI’s X-File
The FBI has a whole lot of reported cases, like a lot. Which one do you think people would want to read most? If you’re guessing John Dillinger or Roswell — spoiler alert: you’re wrong. In fact, it’s actually a two paragraph note known as the Hottel memo, which dates back to March 22, 1950.
This most controversial yet famous file was uploaded to the Vault — the FBI’s online accessible database of all their files and documents — in 2011. In just a couple of years, the file had over a million viewers online.
The memo’s author, Guy Hottel, was then head of the FBI’s Washington field office. The report supposedly gave a detailed account by one US Air Force investigator, who claimed he recovered a trio of flying saucers — with an alien crew and all.
The alleged “flying saucers,” were “circular in shape with raised centers, approximately 50 meters in diameter,”according to the memo; and “[The aliens had] bodies of human shape but only 3 feet tall, dressed in metallic cloth of a very fine texture. Each body was bandaged in a manner similar to the blackout suits used by speed fliers and test pilots.”
Oh my word!
It’s Conspiracy Theory
Atlas Obscura describes the Hottel memo as “what some believe to be a real-life X-File.” Though the FBI hasn’t said much about it. They even posted about it on their official website, addressing the controversy head-on and calling the memo “an unconfirmed report that the FBI never even followed up on.”
The FBI claims that the memo does not even reveal what conspiracy theorists are hoping it does.
“When we launched the Vault in April 2011, some media outlets noticed the Hottel memo and erroneously reported that the FBI had posted proof of a UFO crash at Roswell, New Mexico and the recovery of wreckage and alien corpses. The resulting stories went viral, and traffic to the new Vault soared,” the FBI post says.
As a matter of fact, Hottel even took down the memo almost three years after the popular Roswell crash, which occurred in 1947. Actually, It was really just a balloon crash; balloon crash dummies and humans with head injuries explain away a lot of “alien sightings” in the Roswell area.
Does The FBI Even Care?
The FBI’s post continues:
“… The Hottel memo does not prove the existence of UFOs; it is simply a second- or third-hand claim that we never investigated. Some people believe the memo repeats a hoax that was circulating at that time, but the Bureau’s files have no information to verify that theory. Sorry, no smoking gun on UFOs. The mystery remains …”
Like we said: It’s really a mystery. The FBI didn’t investigate this report further, and even after the Roswell crash, the U.S was so intrigued about alien paranoia, though the FBI really did investigate UFO reports in attempts to calm down the rumors.
They assigned that task to the US Air Force in the summer of 1950 — but that was four months after the Hottel report. This suggests that FBI officials “didn’t think enough of [the Hottel] flying saucer story to look into it,” according to the agency.
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Written by: Nana Kwadwo, Thu, Jan 31, 2019.
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