Case files / hottel-memo-1950
The Hottel memo
- When
- March 22, 1950
- Where
- FBI Washington field office, about New Mexico
- Reported by
- Guy Hottel, head of the FBI's Washington field office
- Released
- FBI Vault, 2011
- Status
- Secondhand claim, never investigated
The memo passes on a claim from an Air Force investigator, by way of an informant, that three "so-called flying saucers" had been recovered in New Mexico, each about 50 feet across, each holding three bodies "only 3 feet tall, dressed in metallic cloth of a very fine texture." It blames high-powered radar in the area. Its last line: "No further evaluation was attempted."
When the FBI Vault went online in 2011, this page became its most-viewed document. The FBI has since said the memo doesn't prove anything and that it never investigated the claim. It doesn't mention Aztec, though it's often linked to the Aztec story.
That story first spread through a 1950 book and was written off for decades after the book's sources were discredited. Scott and Suzanne Ramsey spent decades on it, tracking down witnesses, records and the site in Hart Canyon, and their 2012 book argues a craft really was recovered there. It's independent research, not a government record, and we list it here as that.