Notes: 1. “FBI Drums Up Cymbals-Like ‘Disk’ in Idaho,” Tacoma News Tribune, July 12, 1947.

2. “Idaho Found Disc Gets Hush-Hush,” East Oregonian, July 11, 1947, p. 1. In the previ- ous day’s paper, the East Oregonian reported on a “metal saucer, 30 inches in diameter” that was found in a geranium bed at the North Hollywood home of construction engineer Russell Long. The FBI in this case also intervened and turned the disc over to the military. Long had first called the fire department, however, and fire battalion chief Wallace Newcombe exhibited it to the press. A reporter gave this description of that disk: “A radio tube on top was set down into the saucer which was about 5 inches thick at the middle and tapered to a thin perimeter. There were wires leading to a plug embedded in the center of the lower half. There was a rudder type wing on the top.” (“LA Resident Finds Saucer In Flower Bed,” East Oregonian, July 10, 1947, p. 1.)

3. “Boy-Made Discs Puzzled FBI,” East Oregonian, July 12, 1947, p. 1. This article said that the device was put together by the boys in two days “from parts of an old phonograph, burned out radio tubes and other discarded electrical parts. It had a plexi-glass dome, radio tubes, burned wires and glistening gold and silver sides.”

4. Fensterwald, Bernard, Coincidence or ?, New York: Kensington, 1977, pp. 225-227.

5. LeRoy, Rev. Robert, Alarming Cry Newspaper and various tracts, published in Langley, Washington, 1992-1998.

6. DiEugenio, James, Destiny Betrayed: JFK, Cuba and the Garrison Case, New York: Sheridan Square Press, 1992, p. 38-39.

7. “Subversion in Racial Unrest,” Hearings of Louisiana Joint Legislative Committee, 10:00AM, Court of Appeals, Fourth Floor, Louisiana State Capitol Building, Baton Rouge, Louisi- ana, March 7, 1957, p. 5.

8. “Subversion in Racial Unrest,” Hearings of Louisiana Joint Legislative Committee, 10:00AM, Court of Appeals, Fourth Floor, Louisiana State Capitol Building, Baton Rouge, Louisi- ana, March 7, 1957, p. 10. Banister also gave to the committee more of a view of the kinds of problems he faced while working in the Pacific northwest: “I recall one outbreak of ‘hoof and mouth disease’ which occurred in dairy herds in Canada. Legally, it was not possible to establish that it was done — planted there. But an intelligence officer is never quite satisfied with a legal definition. And I have talked to many men. You can’t be certain. We can’t be certain that the man who was supposed to have taken it there was the one who actually did. Someone else could have put it there. We have the example of the ‘wheat stem rust’ which hit Durham wheat in Eastern Montana and Western Dakota — the kind of wheat where we get our macaroni. That was an upflare. In that case I talked to the nation’s leading plant pathologists in that field. We don’t know where those spores came from. They trapped them at 15,000 feet in the air. Maybe it’s a test run. We don’t know. Maybe it’s natural. But we must be suspicious now. We can’t afford to pass it off as natural, as an example.” Banister also had a role in the FBI investigation of . His name has been re- dacted from the relevant Freedom of Information documents. Ron Halbritter notes that the names of Special Agents in Charge (SACs) of Seattle and Portland, while redacted, were nevertheless recovered by diligent researchers from mentions missed by the FBI. The agency did not miss any references to Banister, however, and Banister’s link went untold until the emergence of the 30 inch disk news item.

9. Sofian, Terry, “UFOs and Fugos,” in Popular Alienation: A Steamshovel Press Read- er, Lilburn, GA: IllumiNet, 1995, p. 131. Sofian points out that the Fugo balloon project was halted in March 1945 and that “the mechanics of the balloon...would have made it impossible to remain aloft for two years.” Still, the acknowledged casualties of an exploded Fugo ballon bomb, a woman and five children happened in Lakeview, Oregon in May 1945. Compare the 1947 news descriptions of the 30 inch disks to Sofian’s description of the Fugos: “The aero- static platform consisted of a gas bag or envelope...a small mechanical device linked paired ballast bags with a gas release valve...rubbered silk balloons carried radio equipment to help determine the effectiveness of the weapons. They could be tracked to their targets by long range radio receivers.”

10. According to Arnold’s earliest recollection, he first called Lieutenant Frank M. Brown. Also according to that story, when Smith and Arnold returned to Hotel Winthrop,

Smith and Crisman took off together somewhere and Ar- Persistent nold was alone in room 502 when Lt. Brown called back. Bothering “The Mystery of the Flying Discs...A Proof of the Shaver Mystery...” The Shaver Mystery Magazine, Volume II, No. Anomalies: 1, 1948., p. 38. Gerald Heard heard 11. What Happened in Room 502?, p. 19-20. For the sake of research on JFK & UFO archivists provided the What Happened in Room 502? 12. , p. 22 author with a one-of-a-kind lecture performance by the 13. Coming of the Saucers, pp. 44-45. great philosopher Gerald Heard from 1952, who had proffered an “ 14. Arnold spelled the name “Lance.” intelligence” theory of UFOs in his 1950 groundbreak- 15. Tacoma Times, July 7, 1947, p. 1; “’Saucers Seen In ing book, The Riddle of the Tacoma,” Tacoma News-Tribune, Flying Saucers, re-titled Is Another World Watching? for its American edition. In July 8, 1947, p. 1. fact, that early UK edition Tacoma News Tribune The reported that another witness had a chapter on the Maury in South Tacoma had called in excitedly that same night to report Island UFO case missing in he had witnessed the same UFO show. the US edition. Caught up in that summer’s UFO flap, the Tacoma Getting to listen to that recording did not come News Tribune did what it could to calm its hyped-up reader- easy. The university would ship. Even before the reports became more localized, the not allow it because age newspaper filled its columns with debunking mythology. The had made the reel tape paper ran the explanation of an unnamed source at Califor- quite fragile. Archivists there nia Institute of Technology that the discs had something to do even refused a plea to have it digitized; the archives with “the transmutation of atomic energy” (“Air Discs Baffle does not loan out items in Nation,” July 6, 1947). Dr. Harold Urey responded to this by its collections for that (or noting, “You can transmute metals, not energy.” any) purpose. Argument on “Two” days later, the News Tribune reported the the- the absurdity of having an ory that the UFOs were “clouds of flying gases discharged archived tape that research- from airplane exhausts,” which the paper attributed to former ers could not use persuaded no one. Because of the public works commissioner J. W. Silver (“Tacomans Give interest expressed, however, Answer, Advice On Flying Disk,” July 8, 1947.) That story in- when a digitizing vender cluded also a letter from reader Birtley A. Ball anticipating approached this archive for that a saucer or debris would soon be recovered. “If some a digitizing project, the archi- substance were available which could continue to expand vist selected the Heard tape for the vender to use as a and push against the air (for motive power), I could make a free sample of the vender’s concave disk of plastic and magnesium foil and mount the work for further consider- power substance in capsules with jets pointed tangentially ation. Hence, the Heard and slightly downward: the disk would have several radial tape could be heard.So on slits, bent to climb when rotated.” the slim hope that Professor Heard might say something Over the next several days, the News Tribune published about the removal of his a satirical column about the saucer flap (“Zounds! Hal Boyle Maury Island chapter, the Kidnapped by Crew of Mars’ ,” July 9, 1947; “Hal JFK & UFOauthor sat ¢

Boyle Gets Down To Earth; Sabotages Mars ‘Flying Saucer’,” July 10, 1947.) It also included news stories intended to make the topic look ridiculous (“Juggler Accounts For ‘Saucers’: He Misjuggled Some,” July 9, 1947, p. 4; “Saucer Silly Folks Fail To Bother G-Men,” July 10, 1947, p. 1; “Disk Calls Mount, Reporters Disk-Happy,” July 10, 1947, p. 20; “Down To Earth People Think Little of Disks,” July 13, 1947), helping create a circus atmosphere around Arnold’s investigation. It reported the Guy Banister connection to the 30 inch disk in Butte (“FBI Drums Up Cymbals-Like ‘Disk’ in Idago,” July 11, 1947), but in the follow- up cover story noted that the four boys who supposedly made the small disk were “laughing up their sleeves” (“Idaho’s Disk Is Brainschild of Four Lads,” July 13, 1947, p. 3.) The story followed more satire by writer Hal Boyle. The News Tribune reassuringly reported the Roswell weather balloon cover story, the first of what became three “official” explanations from the US Air Force over time. However, that report also included rancher W. W. Brazel’s cryptic remark (after a brow-beating from the military, according to lore) that “If I find anything else short of a bomb it’s going to be hard to get me to talk.” (“Found Disk Just Balloon,” July 10, 1947). The News Tribune also ran two reports about the airport into which Kenneth Arnold had flown (“Oswald Flying Service Is Well Equipped,” July 13, 1947; “Tacoma Flying Service Long Established,” July 27, 1947.)

16. The proceedings of the First International UFO Congress in Chicago in 1977 quote Ar- nold as saying, “I no longer have motion-picture equipment. Someone broke into my hangar and stole it, but I’ve still got all my films.” (p. 370) Nevertheless, the films have never emerged.

17. Pobst, p. 33.

18. Coming of the Saucers, p. 55.