Case files / mj-12-papers
The MJ-12 papers
- When
- Dated 1947 and 1952; surfaced 1984 to 1988 · 1947 on the timeline
- Where
- Mailed to researchers in the United States
- Reported by
- Unknown; first made public by researchers William Moore, Jaime Shandera and Stanton Friedman
- Released
- FBI, in its FOIA library (the Vault)
- Status
- Called fabricated by the Air Force (1988); still argued over
The best known of the papers is dated November 18, 1952, and is set out as a top secret briefing for President-elect Eisenhower. It says a group of twelve officials and scientists, Majestic 12, was formed in 1947 after a craft and bodies were recovered near Roswell, and lists its members by name. It came to light in 1984 as undeveloped film mailed anonymously to television producer Jaime Shandera, who worked with researcher William Moore, and was made public in 1987.
Other Majestic 12 papers turned up in researchers' mailboxes over the next four years, and one, a short 1954 memo, was found in a box of Air Force files at the National Archives. Copies passed from hand to hand, and the FBI was given them more than once: in 1988, and again years later when someone found a set on the lobby floor of their workplace.
In 1988 an Air Force Office of Special Investigations agent was handed a copy and asked the FBI whether it had been properly declassified. About a month later, the FBI file says, the Air Force told the Bureau the document "was fabricated" and "completely bogus," and the FBI closed the case. Its copy carries the word BOGUS. Critics also point to a date style the government did not use at the time and signatures copied from other documents.
Stanton Friedman spent years defending the papers and argued that the critics' points could be answered; other researchers, including some who believe Roswell was a real crash, think the papers are forgeries. No government agency has said the group existed.