The "Hottel Memo"

The "Hottel Memo" is perhaps the most famous example of how a sensationalized story—fueled in part by the International News Service (INS)—can accidentally end up in official government files and, decades later, be mistaken for "proof" of a cover-up.

The Document

The memo, dated March 22, 1950, was written by Guy Hottel, the then-head of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, and addressed to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. It is currently the most-viewed document in the FBI Vault (their digital reading room).

The Content:

Hottel reported that an Air Force investigator stated three "so-called flying saucers" had been recovered in New Mexico. He described them as circular, about 50 feet in diameter, with raised centers. Each was supposedly occupied by three bodies of human shape but only 3 feet tall, dressed in a "fine, metallic cloth."

The Connection to the INS Hoaxes

Context Collapse

"Context collapse": when the original context of a document is unclear or lost, leaving it open to alternative (potentially erroneous) interpretation.  It's like what happens when a perfectly boring FBI memo loses all its footnotes, wanders onto the internet alone, and suddenly gets treated like it’s whispering cosmic secrets instead of saying “we wrote this down because someone called us."
For decades, UFO researchers cited this as "smoking gun" evidence of a crash at Roswell or Aztec. However, historical research (and the FBI’s own 2011 clarification) revealed the memo was actually the "end of the line" for the Aztec hoax:

  1. The Origin (1949): The conmen Silas Newton and Leo GeBauer (under the alias "Dr. Gee") began telling their story about crashed saucers in Aztec, New Mexico, to sell fraudulent oil-detecting equipment.

  2. The INS Distribution: The International News Service picked up their claims and ran them as semi-credible news. This gave the story national legs.

  3. The "Telephone" Effect: The story was told by Newton to a man named George Koehler (a Denver radio ad salesman), who told it to a man named Morley Davies, who told it to Herbert Bursley, who told it to Air Force investigator Jack Comstock.

  4. The Memo: Jack Comstock told the story to Guy Hottel. Hottel, simply doing his job, wrote a memo to Hoover summarizing what he had heard.

So, the "Smoking Gun" was in actuality a third-hand report of a story told by a conman to sell fake "doodlebugs."

Why It Matters Today

The Hottel Memo is the ultimate historical example of what AARO calls "circular reporting."

  • A hoax starts in a sensationalist outlet (like the INS).

  • It gets repeated by individuals who believe it.

  • It eventually reaches an official (like Guy Hottel) who writes it down in a report.

  • Years later, someone finds the report and says, "Look! The FBI has a record of a crashed saucer!"

This happens quite a bit.  For more, check out "The Bureau of the Bizarre."

Where to See the Original

You can view the memo directly on the FBI's website: