Scully, Frank
Columnist on the showbusiness magazine Variety who in 1950 published
his best-selling Behind the Flying Saucers. A centerpiece of the
book was Scully's claim that a spacecraft containing 16 dead aliens had
been found on a plateau close to the small town of Aztec, New Mexico. According
to his informants, "Texas oilman" Silas M. Newton and his colleague "Dr.
Gee" (the latter a pseudonym for a "specialist in magnetism"), the bodies
were in the custody of the US military along with two other crashed disks.
Newton and Dr. Gee (real name: Leo GeBauer) turned out to be convicted confidence
tricksters who had embellished a story that had originated with a Hollywood
actor named Mike Conrad. Around 1948, Conrad had hit upon the idea of making
a movie about UFOs with a base in Alaska (see
Keyhoe, Donald). To generate interest in
the project, Conrad claimed that the film would include footage of genuine
UFOs. He also hired a promoter to pose as an FBI agent to spread the story
that the FBI had custody of this footage. Newton and GeBauer were unaware
that Conrad's story was a hoax, while Scully knew nothing about Conrad's
publicity ploy. Newton and GeBauer's motive for elaborating the tale was
purely commercial. GeBauer had built a gadget that, he said, was based on
technology found in the downed saucer and could detect oil and gold deposits.
Ironically, the FBI took an interest in the affair and, in due course, its
chief, J. Edgar Hoover, received a memo on the subject. This document –
a commentary on a piece of hearsay – was later often cited as proof
that the US government was holding saucer wreckage and alien corpses.
The following rebuttal to this entry was received from Scott D. Ramsey on
June 7, 2004:
"I have been researching Frank
Scully and the alleged UFO crash outside of Aztec, N.M. in 1948... Dr. Gee
was not or ever will be considered Leo GeBauer. Frank Scully went to his
death bed insisting that Dr. Gee was 8–9 different scientists from
that time frame. I do agree that Silas Newton was a con man but when you
look at the charges that were brought against he and Leo, only one of 23
investor's filed a complaint. The other 23 investor's were not even allowed
to testify at the trial! The Mike Conrad story has been around for years.
There is no proof whatsoever that he planned this as a hoax. That is another
statement that Frank Scully said on his death bed. Mike ( Michael ) Conrad
never admitted to any hoax and stood by his story until his death. (His
daughter or step-daughter ) is still alive and living in South Carolina...
[O]ver 200 pages of files from the F.B.I. on Leo GeBauer have not been released
do to "National Security Issues." I have been researching this story for
over 16 years, I have over 1,370 documents that certainly spin a new light
on this subject."
Related category
• UFOs
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