I penned this addendum at the suggestion of a top UFOlogist, Stanton Friedman, who felt I failed to provide my readers with adequate “source references” and a “time line” by which they might better understand when certain things were written, and certain claims were made concerning both the Aztec hoax and the Roswell myth. Although, I’m certain he didn’t actually use those exact terms. Actually, he felt my essay was quite poor.

Anyway, I altered the text you’ve already read and included “source references” at the essay’s close…. Now, I shall attempt to establish a “time line” which will help “clarify” things a bit more. However, this is merely a time line-- I shall not go into all the detailed claims and counter claims associated with these alleged UFO incidents.

The original Roswell incident involving the finding of scattered debris at the Foster ranch, outside of Roswell, New Mexico occurred in early July of 1947. The debris was apparently discovered by Mac Brazel a ranch hand and military people from the Roswell Army Air Force base collected the material and allegedly the base Commander (Col. William H.“ Butch” Blanchard) told the Public Information Officer (Lt. Walter Haut) to inform the press they had captured a flying disk. At the time, flying saucers were being reported over the United States, two weeks earlier a private pilot named Kenneth Arnold spotted nine gleaming discs over Mt. Rainer in Washington State. That’s about nine months before the Aztec crash was supposed to have happened.

The Roswell press release did go out and attracted world-wide attention, but, was retracted the next day by top military brass when debris of a damaged radar target affixed to a weather balloon was said to have been the object Mac Brazel had discovered. The story was a flash-in-the-pan, soon faded from memory and included no mention of finding a downed (Nearly intact UFO) at another crash location or alien bodies

Three years later in 1950 Frank Scully a columnist for a periodical called “Variety” authored a book “ Behind the Flying Saucers” and one chapter was about a downed UFO found near Aztec, New Mexico, in March of 1948. This story did include the “alleged” finding of alien bodies and technological devices were also said to have been recovered from the space craft. In 1950 two con men who had concocted the saucer crash story were promoting an oil and natural gas field discovery swindle. Scully wrote about the fallen saucer, apparently unaware the story was a hoax and part of a fraudulent scheme.

This story also faded from memory as the con men were finally convicted of their crime and Scully’s book sank into the depths UFO obscurity. Twenty four years passed and the Aztec UFO crash story re-emerged as told by an eccentric, but, charismatic fellow named Professor Carr. As Carr was promoting the yarn in October of 1974 (That’s 27 years later than the original Aztec crash date) a UFO researcher, Michael McClellan, investigated Carr’s claims and demolished the re-told story as yet another hoax

In the same year (1974) a report of a crashed saucer at Carbondale, Pa. was given world-wide press attention. It was investigated and determined to have been a hoax perpetrated by three teens. One of the trio, as an adult, confessed to the prank on the 25th anniversary of the event. But, 27 years later three self-appointed UFO experts were attempting to re-establish the case as Pennsylvania’s Roswell.

By 1980 the Roswell story had also been re-visited by researchers Moore and Pratt and later invested with the discovery of an almost intact downed UFO in 1991 (Randle and Schmitt,) alien bodies in 1989 (Glen Dennis) and a second crash site located well beyond the debris field in 1990 (Jim Ragsdale) That’s a cumulative 43 years after the original Roswell incident occurred and was reported in the global press. During the next eighteen years, these updated versions of the Roswell incident would grow in popularity through numerous book/periodical publications, and several cable TV productions on the incident. The story attained its place in the American lexicon as surely as the romantic (Albeit errant) legends concerning a three year old Davy Crockett killing a bear or, Abe Lincoln’s writing of the Gettysburg address on the back of an envelope.

However, it was Randle and Schmitt’s book “UFO Crash at Roswell” published in 1991 that first linked the alien bodies and second crash site together and brought the continuing saga to the public’s attention.
Source: Special thanks to Mr. Bruce Hutchinson, roswellfiles.com

Much to everyone’s surprise, in 1987 the Aztec story re-surfaced in a book by William Steinman “UFO crash at Aztec” provided startling new details and was deemed a genuine saucer crash/landing - just as the Roswell incident had been about seven years earlier - In fact, many people felt they had heard stories of the Roswell alien cadaver’s being autopsied before 1980, when they were in fact, ”mistakenly” recalling some of Carr’s claims of the early seventies, as well as, vague recollections of the original Aztec hoax as touted in the 1950 Frank Scully book. The confusion was compounded still further with the airing of the bogus “Alien Autopsy Film” which received much TV exposure in 1995 both here and abroad. Some people felt they were viewing the Roswell alien autopsy while others wee convinced it was an Aztec alien cadaver lying beneath the surgeon’s scalpel. The film’s maker and promoter (Ray Santilli) later admitted the film was not entirely genuine in 2006.

With the turn of the century the Aztec UFO crash was again resurrected and promoted by Scott Ramsey, a researcher who claimed to have found dozens of witnesses to the 1948 event. Indeed, the Dracula of UFOOLogy was baaaak… and the eye witnesses were getting much older. As one Roswell UFOlogist aptly pointed out “We investigator’s are in a race with the funeral homes.”

As you can see, the aforementioned UFO expert’s suggestion of my providing a time line for this essay is quite reasonable, as many people tend to confuse the earlier date of the original Roswell incident as the “Prototype” for saucer crash, alien body discovery/autopsy myths, when it was actually the ever-developing Aztec case of 1948/50/74 and ‘87 vintages

....Matt Graeber, Feb.15, 2008.