Editing UFO conspiracy theories (section)

==Chronology of UFO conspiracy theories==
{{Split section|date=January 2025}}

===1940s origin in Raymond Palmer's pulp magazine===
[[File:Raypalmer1930.jpg|thumb|upright=.5|right|Raymond Palmer, called "the man who invented flying saucers"]]

UFO conspiracy theories began in 1940s pulp magazine edited by [[Raymond A. Palmer|Raymond Palmer]], known as "the man who invented [[flying saucers]]".<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|3}}<ref name="Nadis"/>  For years prior to the [[1947 flying disc craze]],  Palmer had published reports of strange craft in his pulp sci-fi magazine ''Amazing Stories''.<ref name="Barkun2006"/>{{rp|32}}<ref name="Nadis"/>  During the 1947 flying disc craze,  Palmer hired original saucer witness [[Kenneth Arnold]] to investigate a flying disc report near Maury Island, Washington.<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|13}}<ref name="Nadis"/> By October 1947, Palmer's magazine featured claims that the truth behind the discs was being covered up.<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|12}}<ref name="Nadis"/>  Palmer would continue to promote UFO conspiracy theories for the rest of his life,  eventually linking them to the JFK assassination and Watergate.<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|323}}<ref name="Nadis"/>

====Spaceships of "The Shaver Mystery"====
[[File:Amazing stories 194503.jpg|thumb|right|Shaver's first published work, the novella "I Remember Lemuria", was the cover story in the [https://archive.org/details/Amazing_Stories_v19n01_1945-03_Ziff-Daviscape1736 March 1945 ''Amazing Stories'']]]
Beginning in 1945, Palmer began to print ostensibly-true stories based on the writings of Richard Shaver, a Pennsylvania welder who claimed to be  in telepathic communication with a secret underground race.<ref name="Barkun2006"/>{{rp|32|quote=The most influential examples of this genre are a set of science-fiction stories published in the pulp magazine Amazing Stories between 1945 and 1948. The stories and their surrounding circumstances came to be known as “the Shaver Mystery,” after their principal author, Richard Shaver, a welder from Pennsylvania. Shaver claimed to have been in psychic communication with a subterranean race and to have once physically visited their underground civilization.}} In 1934, Shaver had been hospitalized for psychiatric problems;  Barkun argues: "By most accounts Shaver himself believed with absolute conviction in the truthfulness of his stories. This, combined with their appearance in a pulp-fiction venue, served further to blur the already uncertain boundary between fact and fiction."<ref name="Barkun2006"/>{{rp|115}}
Shaver claimed that ancient civilizations had mastered space travel, spread civilization to other planets, and could travel to Earth.<ref name="Barkun2006"/>{{rp|116|quote="It is worth bearing in mind that the Shaver Mystery was well under way before the first publicized UFO sighting in 1947. Nonetheless, there were ample opportunities for linkage. In the first place, although Shaver focused on Lemurian survivors, he believed that thousands of years ago, some beings from earth had mastered space travel and colonized other worlds, from which they were in a position to return.}}

In a July 1946 editorial, Palmer argued that "responsible parties in world governments" were aware "of the fact of spaceships visiting Earth".<ref name="DClarke">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K_R0CQAAQBAJ | title=How UFOs Conquered the World: The History of a Modern Myth | isbn=978-1-78131-472-2 | last1=Clarke | first1=David | date=14 May 2015 | publisher=Quarto Publishing Group USA }}</ref>{{rp|x|quote=" In the years that followed he published letters sent to Amazing Stories by a man called Richard Shaver who claimed that a race of demonic creatures lived secretly in caves beneath the Earth and persecuted humans with mysterious rays. Then, in a prescient editorial written in July 1946, a year before Kenneth Arnold's sighting, Palmer told readers: 'If you don't think spaceships visit the Earth regularly then the files of Charles Fort and your editor's own files are something you should see. And if you think responsible parties in world governments are ignorant of the fact of spaceships visiting the Earth, you just don't think the way we do.'"}}<ref name="Laycock"/> Peebles opines:  "One would be hard pressed to find a more concise summary of the flying saucer myth. Yet this was a year before the first widely publicized sighting."<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|6}}<ref group="note">[https://archive.org/details/Amazing_Stories_v20n04_1946-07_cape1736 ''Amazing Stories'' July 1946]. The same issue carried a letter from Fred Crisman in which he claimed to have battled underground monsters in Burma (Peebles p.13, Gulyas 2015 p.30)</ref>

====Kenneth Arnold ignites flying disc craze====
{{main|1947 flying disc craze}}
[[File:Ramey-dubose-debris.jpg|thumb|right|Army officials pose with balloon debris from Roswell.]]

The flying disc craze began on June 24, when media nationwide reported civilian pilot [[Kenneth Arnold|Kenneth Arnold's]] [[Kenneth Arnold UFO sighting|story of witnessing disc-shaped objects]] which headline writers dubbed "[[Flying Saucers]]".<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|ch.2}}<ref name="G_Arnold">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8GBVEAAAQBAJ|title=Flying Saucers Over America: The UFO Craze of 1947|first=Gordon|last=Arnold|date=December 17, 2021|publisher=McFarland|isbn=9781476646527 |via=Google Books}}</ref> Such reports quickly spread throughout the United States; historians would later chronicle at least 800 "copycat" reports in subsequent weeks, while other sources estimate the reports may have numbered in the thousands.<ref name="jkHK1"/><ref name="Bullard"/>{{rp|53}}

On July 8, 1947, Roswell Army Air Field issued a press release stating that they had recovered a "flying disc". The Army quickly retracted the statement and clarified that the crashed object was a conventional [[weather balloon]].<ref name="olmsted184">{{cite book|first=Kathryn S.|last=Olmsted|title=Real Enemies: Conspiracy Theories and American Democracy, World War I to 9/11|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u7Sd5vyOOtEC&pg=PA173|chapter=Chapter 6: Trust No One: Conspiracies and Conspiracy Theories from the 1970s to the 1990s|year=2009|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-975395-6|pages=173–204|access-date=2016-03-16}}{{rp|184}}
</ref> The Roswell incident did not surface again until 1978, when  [[Ufology|ufologist]] [[Stanton Friedman]] interviewed [[Jesse Marcel]].<ref>{{cite magazine |date=June 23, 1997 |title=The Roswell Files |url=https://time.com/vault/issue/1997-06-23/spread/120/ |magazine=Time |volume=149 |ref={{harvid|"The Roswell Files"|1997}} |number=25}}</ref>{{rp|69}}

In late July, Palmer contacted Kenneth Arnold and asked him to investigate a "flying disc" report from Fred Crisman near Maury Island, Washington.<ref name="Gulyas2015"/>{{rp|30-31|quote="Even before the Maury Island Incident (as it became known), Crisman’s life intersected the paranormal and parapolitical worlds throughout the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. Before spotting the flying saucer in Washington, he wrote to Amazing Stories magazine, claiming that he had fought his way out of a cave in Burma during World War II, battling mysterious and evil underground creatures. In the 1960s, Jim Garrison would subpoena him in his case
against Clay Shaw as part of the John F. Kennedy assassination."}}   In June 1946 and again in May 1947, Palmer had published fantastical letters from Crisman, who claimed to have battled inhuman underground monsters in Burma.<ref name="Gulyas2015"/>{{rp|30–31}} Arnold agreed and Palmer wired him $200 to fund the investigation."<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|13|quote=Palmer received a letter from two Tacoma harbor patrolmen—Fred Lee Crisman and Harold A. Dahl. The letter said they had seen a group of flying saucers and had fragments from one of them. Crisman was known to Palmer. A year before, Crisman had written a letter claiming he had had an underground battle with the Deros. Palmer asked Kenneth Arnold, to whom he had written earlier, to investigate the story. Arnold agreed."}}  Arriving in Tacoma, Arnold interviewed Crisman, who told a tale of a flying disc that emitted rock-like debris and a visitation from mysterious black-clad stranger who gave ominous instructions not to speak of the disc.<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|13–15}}

Arnold summoned two Air Force investigators who took possession of the supposed debris, described as lava rocks, from Crisman.<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|13–15}} As the investigators returned to base, their B-25 caught fire and crashed. A local paper ran a story suggesting the plane had been sabotaged or shot down to prevent the shipping of the flying disc fragments. Though Crisman later confessed to a hoax, Peebles argues the story was the "first to give a sinister air" or "conspiratorial atmosphere" to the flying saucer myth.<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|13-15|quote="In retrospect, the newspaper publicity about the B-25 crash was the first to give a sinister air to the flying saucer myth. The talk of "sabotage," "mysterious stranger," and "classified material" gave it a "conspiratorial" atmosphere. The Army Air Force knew it was a hoax and why the plane crashed, but the public had only the contradictory newspaper accounts.}}

==== Aftermath====
In the October 1947 issue of Amazing Stories, editor [[Raymond A. Palmer|Raymond Palmer]] argued the flying disc flap was proof of Richard Sharpe Shaver's claims.<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|12}} That same issue carried a letter from Shaver in which he argued the truth behind the discs would remain a secret.<ref name="MirageMen"/><ref name="auto5" group="note">[http://archive.org/details/Amazing_Stories_v21n10_1947-10_cape1736 ''Amazing Stories'' October 1947]</ref>

Wrote Shaver:<blockquote> "The discs can be a space invasion, a secret new army plane — or a scouting trip by an enemy country...OR, they can be Shaver's space ships, taking off and landing regularly on earth for centuries past, and seen today as they have always been — as a mystery. They could be leaving earth with cargos of wonder-mech that to us would mean emancipation from a great many of our worst troubles— and we'll never see those cargos...I predict that nothing more will be seen, and the truth of what the strange disc ships really are will never be disclosed to the common people. We just don't count to the people who do know about such things. It isn't necessary to tell us anything."<ref name="MirageMen">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TQ3BBAAAQBAJ|title=Mirage Men: A Journey into Disinformation, Paranoia and UFOs.|first=Mark|last=Pilkington|date=July 29, 2010|publisher=Little, Brown Book Group|isbn=9781849012409 |via=Google Books}}</ref><ref name="RToronto"/>{{rp|159}}<ref name="auto5" group="note"/>    </blockquote>During the last decades of his life, Shaver devoted himself to "rock books"—stones that he believed had been created by the advanced ancient races and embedded with legible pictures and texts.<ref name="RToronto"/>{{rp|206}} After Shaver's death in 1975, his editor Raymond Palmer admitted that "Shaver had spent eight years not in the Cavern World, but in a mental institution" being treated for [[paranoid schizophrenia]].<ref name="MirageMen"/>{{rp|ch. 3}}
{{Quote box
|quote="There is a definite link between flying saucers, The Shaver Mystery, The Kennedy’s assassinations, Watergate and Fred Crisman."
|source=Ray Palmer, 1976 letter to Gray Barker<ref>Gray Barker’s Newsletter #5, March 1976, Letters to Editor, pg 15,cited in LeFevre (2014) pp 52-56</ref><ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|323|quote=Crisman was the perfect suspect to create a “link” between UFOs, the occult, and the various assassination theories. His testimony was never released and he is now dead. Garrison’s investigation was worthless, relying on hearsay, nonexistent “links,” and spurious “unanswered questions.” Most of the “suspects” were dead by the time Garrison sought indictments. }}
|width=30%
}}

In 1952, Arnold and  Palmer would author ''Coming of the Saucers''.<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|13,92}} It detailed his 1947 investigation of Fred Crisman's claims, alleged he had been eavesdropped on during his investigation, and other strange behavior.<ref name="Gulyas2015"/>{{rp|30}}
In 1968, Crisman would be subpoenaed by a New Orleans grand jury in the prosecution of a local man for the assassination of President John F. Kennedy—a prosecution that would later be dramatized in the 1991 Oliver Stone film JFK.<ref name="Gulyas2015"/>{{rp|pp=30–31}}<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|323|quote=Crisman was the perfect suspect to create a “link” between UFOs, the occult, and the various assassination theories. His testimony was never released and he is now dead. Garrison’s investigation was worthless, relying on hearsay, nonexistent “links,” and spurious “unanswered questions.” Most of the “suspects” were dead by the time Garrison sought indictments. }}  
{{Ufo}}

===National coverage in the 1950s===
{{main|The Flying Saucer Conspiracy}}

The 1950s saw an increase in both governmental and civilian investigative efforts and reports of public [[disinformation]] and suppression of evidence.
<!--
The UK [[Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Defence]]'s UFO Project has its roots in a study commissioned in 1950 by the MOD's then Chief Scientific Adviser, radar scientist [[Henry Tizard]]. As a result of his insistence that UFO sightings should not be dismissed without some form of proper scientific study, the department set up the [[Flying Saucer Working Party]] (or FSWP).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.nickpope.net/ufos_an_official_history.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130920012510/http://www.nickpope.net/ufos_an_official_history.htm|title=Nick Pope, ''UFOs: An Official History''|archive-date=September 20, 2013}}</ref>

In August 1950, Montanan baseball manager [[The Mariana UFO Incident|Nicholas Mariana]] filmed several UFOs with his color 16mm camera. [[Project Blue Book]] was called in and, after inspecting the film, Mariana claimed it was returned to him with critical footage removed, clearly showing the objects as disc-shaped. The [[The Mariana UFO Incident|incident]] sparked nationwide media attention.

In April 1952, Life Magazine published "[[Have We Visitors From Space?]]", which was sympathetic to the [[extraterrestrial hypothesis]]. The article is thought to have contributed to the [[1952 UFO flap]].<ref name="Mazur">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rjwrDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA123|title=Implausible Beliefs: In the Bible, Astrology, and UFOs|first=Allan|last=Mazur|date=July 5, 2017|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-351-51322-7 |via=Google Books}}</ref>

Canadian radio engineer Wilbert B. Smith, who worked for the Canadian Department of Transport, was interested in flying saucer propulsion technology and wondered if the assertions in the just-published Scully and Keyhoe books were factual. In September 1950, he had the Canadian embassy in Washington D.C. arrange contact with U.S. officials to try to discover the truth of the matter. Smith was briefed by Robert Sarbacher, a physicist and consultant to the Defense Department's Research and Development Board. Other correspondence, having to do with Keyhoe needing to get clearance to publish another article on Smith's theories of UFO propulsion, indicated that [[Vannevar Bush|Bush]] and his group were operating out of the [[Vannevar Bush#National Science Foundation|Research and Development Board]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.roswellproof.com/smith_papers.html|title=Wilbert Smith UFO papers|website=www.roswellproof.com|access-date=2009-03-21|archive-date=2009-04-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090403185326/http://www.roswellproof.com/Smith_papers.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Smith then briefed superiors in the Canadian government, leading to the establishment of [[Project Magnet (UFO)|Project Magnet]], a small Canadian government UFO research effort. Canadian documents and Smith's private papers were uncovered in the late 1970s, and by 1984, other alleged documents emerged claiming the existence of a highly secret UFO oversight committee of scientists and military people called [[Majestic 12]], again naming Vannevar Bush. Sarbacher was also interviewed in the 1980s and corroborated the information in Smith's memos and correspondence. Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, Smith granted public interviews, and among other things stated that he had been lent crashed UFO material for analysis by a highly secret U.S. government group which he wouldn't name.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.roswellproof.com/debris8_misc.html#anchor_3697 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090408085039/http://presidentialufo.com/hardware.htm|url-status=dead |title=Roswell flower tape|archive-date=April 8, 2009 |website=www.roswellproof.com}}</ref>

A few weeks after the [[Robertson Panel]], the Air Force issued Regulation 200–2, ordering air base officers to publicly discuss UFO incidents only if they were judged to have been solved, and to classify all the unsolved cases to keep them out of the public eye. In addition, UFO investigative duties started to be taken on by the newly formed 4602nd Air Intelligence Squadron (AISS) of the [[Air Defense Command]]. The 4602nd AISS was tasked with investigating only the most important UFO cases having intelligence or national security implications. These were deliberately siphoned away from Blue Book, leaving Blue Book to deal with the more trivial reports.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Dolan |first1=Richard M. |title=UFOS and the national security state : chronology of a cover-up 1941–1973 |year=2002 |publisher=Hampton Roads Pub. Co |isbn=978-1571743176 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/ufosnationalsecu00dola/page/210 210-211] |url=https://archive.org/details/ufosnationalsecu00dola/page/210 }}</ref>-->
====Keyhoe's "Flying Saucer Conspiracy"====
On December 26, 1949,   ''True'' magazine published an article by [[Donald Keyhoe]] titled "[[The Flying Saucers Are Real]]".<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|40–41}}<ref name="Gulyas20210"/>  Keyhoe, a former Major in the US Marines, claimed that elements within the Air Force knew that saucers existed and had concluded they were likely 'inter-planetary'.<ref name="Gulyas20210">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a_hPEAAAQBAJ|title=Conspiracy and Triumph: Theories of a Victorious Future for the Faithful|first=Aaron John|last=Gulyas|date=November 8, 2021|publisher=McFarland|isbn=9781476680767|via=Google Books|access-date=December 23, 2021|archive-date=December 23, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211223072307/https://books.google.com/books?id=a_hPEAAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref>

The article  examined the [[Mantell UFO incident]] and quoted an unnamed pilot who opined that the Air Force's explanation "looks like a cover up to me". The article claimed a "rocket authority at Wright field" had concluded saucers were interplanetary. Concern over a public panic, of the kind that supposedly occurred after the [[The War of the Worlds (1938 radio drama)|1938 War of the Worlds broadcast]], is cited in the article as a possible motive for the cover up.

The ''True'' article caused a sensation.<ref name="Peebles"/>  When Keyhoe expanded the article into a book, ''The Flying Saucers Are Real'' (1950), it sold over half a million copies in paperback. The Air Force denied "flying saucers" exist and further denied that they were US technology being covered-up.<ref name="Peebles"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/321202817/|title=19 Mar 1950, 1 - The Tribune at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com|access-date=25 December 2021|archive-date=20 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211220032735/https://www.newspapers.com/image/321202817/|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Donald Keyhoe on Mike Wallace.gif|thumb|UFO conspiracy proponent Donald Keyhoe (right) interviewed by Mike Wallace on March 8, 1958<ref name="Gulyas2015"/>{{rp|38–39}}]]
In 1954, before Sputnik the first man-made satellite,  Keyhoe told press that [[Black Knight satellite conspiracy theory|alien satellites]] had been detected in Earth orbit.   
In 1955,  Donald Keyhoe authored a new book that pointedly accused elements of the United States government of engaging in a conspiracy to cover up knowledge of flying saucers.<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|111–113}}<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tD7bAAAAMAAJ|isbn=9781523928668|title=The Flying Saucer Conspiracy|year=1955|last1=Keyhoe|first1=Donald Edward}}</ref> Keyhoe claims the existence of a "silence group" orchestrating this conspiracy.<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|110–113}} Historian of Folklore [[Curtis Peebles]] argues:   "''The Flying Saucer Conspiracy'' marked a shift in Keyhoe's belief system. No longer were flying saucers the central theme; that now belonged to the silence group and its coverup. For the next two decades Keyhoe's beliefs about this would dominate the flying saucer myth."<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|110–113}}<!--''The Flying Saucer Conspiracy'' also incorporated legends of the [[Bermuda Triangle]] disappearances.<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|110-113}} Keyhoe sensationalized claims, ultimately stemming from optical illusions, of unusual structures on the Moon.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.amusingplanet.com/2019/10/a-natural-land-bridge-on-moon.html|title=A Natural Land Bridge on The Moon|website=www.amusingplanet.com}}</ref>{{better|date=February 2025}} -->

On January 22, 1958, Donald Keyhoe appeared on CBS's [[Armstrong Circle Theatre]] in an episode titled "UFO: Enigma of the Skies".   During the live broadcast, Keyhoe deviated from the pre-approved script, announcing "now I’m going to reveal something that has never been disclosed before".  At this point in the broadcast, Keyhoe's microphone was cut. According to Peebles,  "Millions of people thought the Air Force had (literally) "silenced" Keyhoe. Keyhoe emerged as the winner of the Armstrong Theater battle. Believers would point to it as an example of 'silencing.' To the public at large, CBS's cutting off of the audio gave Keyhoe's appearance an impact much greater than anything he said."<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|129}}

====Aztec "alien bodies" hoax====
{{main|Aztec, New Mexico UFO hoax}}
[[File:Aztec-hoax-pic.png|alt=Three men demonstrate the Aztec hoax claims using an inverted bowl to represent Earth and a copy of Frank Scully's book to represent a magnetism-powered flying saucer.|thumb|Author Frank Scully (right) and confidence man Silas Newton (center)<ref>{{cite news |last=Severson |first=Thor |title=Little Men Due Soon: Flying Saucer Landing Forecast |date=October 14, 1952 |newspaper=The Denver Post |location=Denver, Colorado |others=Photograph by David Mathias}}</ref>]]
The first "alien bodies" conspiracy theory emerged in October and November 1949, when journalist [[Frank Scully]] published two columns in ''Variety''.<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|47–48}} Scully claimed that dead [[Extraterrestrial life|extraterrestrial]] beings were recovered from a [[flying saucer]] crash, based on what he said was reported to him by a scientist involved.<ref name="variety1">{{cite news|last=Scully|first=Frank|title=One Flying Saucer Lands In New Mexico|newspaper=Variety|date=12 October 1949|location=New York}}</ref><ref name="variety2">{{cite news|last=Scully|first=Frank|title=Flying Saucers Dismantled, Secrets May Be Lost|newspaper=Variety|date=23 November 1949|location=New York}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://archive.org/details/variety176-1949-11|title=Variety (November 1949)|date=December 25, 1949|location=New York, NY|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> His 1950 book ''Behind the Flying Saucers'' expanded on the theme, adding that there had been two such incidents in [[Arizona]] and one in [[New Mexico]], a 1948 incident that involved a saucer that was nearly {{convert|100|ft|m|0}} in diameter.<ref group="note">{{convert|99.99|ft|m|5}} to be exact.</ref><ref name="reece-34">{{cite book |last=Reece |first=Gregory L. |title=UFO Religion: Inside Flying Saucer Cults and Culture |publisher=[[I. B. Tauris]] |location=London; New York |date=2007 |page=34 |isbn=978-1-845-11451-0}}</ref> In January 1950, ''Time Magazine'' skeptically repeated stories of crashed saucers with humanoid occupants.<ref>{{cite magazine | url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,811681,00.html | title=Science: Visitors from Venus | magazine=Time | date=9 January 1950 }}</ref>

It was later revealed that Scully had been the victim of "two veteran [[con artist|confidence artists]]".<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|47–48}}<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.physics.smu.edu/~pseudo/UFOs/Scully/Cahn1.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130330161411/http://www.physics.smu.edu/~pseudo/UFOs/Scully/Cahn1.pdf|title=J. P. Cahn exposé, ''True Magazine'', 1952|archive-date=March 30, 2013}}</ref>
In 1952 and 1956, ''[[True (magazine)|True]]'' magazine published articles by ''[[San Francisco Chronicle]]'' reporter John Philip Cahn<ref name="Cahn1">{{cite news |title=The Flying Saucers and the Mysterious Little Men |last=Cahn |first=J.P. |url=http://www.physics.smu.edu/~pseudo/UFOs/Scully/Cahn1.pdf |work=[[True (magazine)|True]] |date=September 1952 |pages=17–19, 102–112 |access-date=29 March 2013 |archive-date=30 March 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130330161411/http://www.physics.smu.edu/~pseudo/UFOs/Scully/Cahn1.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Cahn2">{{cite news |title=Flying Saucer Swindlers |last=Cahn |first=J.P. |url=http://www.physics.smu.edu/pseudo/UFOs/Scully/Cahn2.pdf |work=True |date=August 1956 |pages=36–37, 69–72 |access-date=30 March 2013 |archive-date=14 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130514181115/http://www.physics.smu.edu/pseudo/UFOs/Scully/Cahn2.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> that exposed Newton and "Dr. Gee" (identified as Leo A. GeBauer) as oil [[confidence trick|con artists]] who had [[hoax]]ed Scully.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bartholomew|first1=Robert E.|last2=Howard|first2=George S.|title=UFOs & Alien Contact: Two Centuries of Mystery|date=1998|publisher=[[Prometheus Books]]|location=Amherst, NY|isbn=978-1-573-92200-5|page=[https://archive.org/details/ufosaliencontact00bart/page/193 193]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/ufosaliencontact00bart/page/193}}</ref>

In a 1997 Roswell report, Air Force investigator James McAndrew wrote that "even with the exposure of this obvious fraud, the Aztec story is still revered by UFO theorists. Elements of this story occasionally reemerge and are thought to be the catalyst for other crashed flying saucer stories, including the Roswell Incident."<ref>{{cite book |last=McAndrew |first=James |url=https://www.esd.whs.mil/Portals/54/Documents/FOID/Reading%20Room/UFOsandUAPs/RoswellReportCaseClosed.pdf?ver=2017-05-22-113519-430 |title=The Roswell Report: Case Closed |date=1997 |publisher=US Government Printing Office |isbn=978-0-16-049018-7 |location=Washington, DC}}</ref>{{rp|84–85}}

====Air Force accounts====
[[File:Samford statement on Flying Saucers July 1952.webm|thumb|right|General Samford press conference on flying saucers]]

On July 29, 1952, General [[John A. Samford|John Samford]], the director of Air Force intelligence, held a press conference on the recent UFO sightings over the nation's capital;  The conference was the largest one held in the seven years since World War II.<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|65}} Samford attributed the recent radar returns to [[Inversion (meteorology)|temperature inversion]].<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|65}} While most reports were easily explainable, Samford acknowledged having received a number of reports from "credible observers of relatively incredible things."<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|65}} Samford continued, saying: "our real interest in this project is not one of intellectual curiosity but is in trying to establish and appraise the possibility of a menace to the United States. And we can say, as of now, that there has been no pattern that reveals anything remotely like purpose or remotely like consistency that we can in any way associate with any menace to the United States."<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|65}}

While most accepted the official explanation, Peebles argues "many in the press and public got the impression that the Air Force was covering up, and this was reflected in some of the press coverage."<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|65}} In 1952, the [[Robertson Panel]] recommended a campaign of public education.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.theguardian.com/science/2002/may/05/spaceexploration.research|title=Cold War hysteria sparked UFO obsession, study finds|date=May 5, 2002|website=The Guardian|access-date=December 25, 2021|archive-date=November 9, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211109225502/https://www.theguardian.com/science/2002/may/05/spaceexploration.research|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Albert M. Chop|Al Chop]], a civilian,   had served as the Press Chief for Air Materiel Command in Dayton, Ohio until 1951 when he transferred to the Pentagon to serve as the press spokesman for [[Project Bluebook]].<ref name="LewisOnChop">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ib3OEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA304 | title=UFOs and Popular Culture: An Encyclopedia of Contemporary Mythology | isbn=978-1-57607-375-9 | last1=Lewis | first1=James R. | date=December 2000 | publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA }}</ref> In 1956, a film titled [[UFO (1956 film)|Unidentified Flying Objects: The True Story of Flying Saucers]] dramatized the events of the early 1950s from the point of view of "Al Chop", an Air Force press officer played by reporter Tom Towers.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=chD8HUd5uXcC&pg=PA93|title=Smokin' Rockets: The Romance of Technology in American Film, Radio and Television, 1945-1962|first1=Patrick|last1=Lucanio|first2=Gary|last2=Coville|date=June 25, 2002|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-7864-1233-4 |via=Google Books}}</ref> The film incorporates interviews with actual eyewitnesses and historic footage of unidentified objects, concluding with a dramatization of the [[1952 UFO flap]] that featured repeated sightings over Washington D.C.<ref name="LewisOnChop"/>

Ruppelt was a captain in the US Air Force who served as director of official investigations into UFOs:  Project Grudge and Project Bluebook.<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|110–113}}<ref name="LewisOnChop"/>  In 1956, Ruppelt authored ''[[The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects]]'', a book that has been called the "most significant" of its era.<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|113}} The book discussed the [[Twining memo]] which initiated UFO investigation and the rejected 1948 "Estimate of the Situation". Ruppelt 
criticized the Air Force's handling of UFOs investigations. Historian Curtis Peebles concludes that the book "should have ended the speculation about an Air Force cover-up. In fact, Ruppelt's statements were converted into support for the cover-up idea."<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|110–113}}

===="Philadelphia Experiment" hoax====
{{main|Philadelphia Experiment}}
In 1955, [[Morris K. Jessup]] achieved some notoriety with his  book ''The Case for the UFO'', in which he argued that UFOs represented a mysterious subject worthy of further study.<ref name="Donovan2011"/>{{rp|106}}<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|112,114}} <!--Jessup also "linked ancient monuments with prehistoric superscience".<ref>Clark, p. 210.</ref>{{better|date=February 2025}}--><ref name="Carroll 2015">{{cite web |url=http://skepdic.com/philadel.html |title=Philadelphia experiment |first=Robert Todd |last=Carroll |author-link=Robert Todd Carroll |website=[[The Skeptic's Dictionary]] |date = November 21, 2015 |access-date=July 10, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210518005522/http://skepdic.com/philadel.html |archive-date=May 18, 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref>

In January 1956, Jessup began receiving a series  of letters from  "Carlos Miguel Allende", later identified as [[Carl Meredith Allen]].<ref name="Donovan2011"/>{{rp|106}}<ref name="NHHC 1996">{{cite web |url=https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/p/philadelphia-experiment/philadelphia-experiment-onr-info-sheet.html |title=Philadelphia Experiment: Office of Naval Research Information Sheet |website=[[Naval History and Heritage Command]] |date=1996-09-08 |access-date=2021-07-11 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210514055617/https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/p/philadelphia-experiment/philadelphia-experiment-onr-info-sheet.html |archive-date=2021-05-14}}</ref> "Allende" warned Jessup not to investigate the levitation of UFOs and spun a tale of a dangerous experiment in which a navy ship was made invisible, only to inexplicably teleport from Philadelphia to Norfolk, Virginia, before reappearing back in Philadelphia.<ref name="Donovan2011"/>{{rp|106}} The ship's crew was supposed to have suffered various side effects, including insanity, intangibility, and being "frozen" in place.<ref name="Donovan2011"/>{{rp|106}}

In 1957, Jessup was invited to the Office of Naval Research where he was shown an annotated copy of his book that was filled with handwritten notes in its margins, written with three different shades of blue ink, appearing to detail a debate among three individuals.<ref name="Donovan2011"/>{{rp|106}} They discussed ideas about the propulsion for [[flying saucers]], [[extraterrestrial intelligence|alien races]], and express concern that Jessup was too close to discovering their technology.<ref name="Donovan2011"/>{{rp|106}} Jessup noticed the handwriting of the annotations resembled the letters he received from Allen. Twelve years later, Allen would say that he authored all of the annotations in order "to scare the hell out of Jessup."<ref name="APRO 1969">{{cite periodical |magazine=The A.P.R.O. Bulletin |publisher=[[Aerial Phenomena Research Organization]] |date=July–August 1969 |location=Tucson, Arizona |title=Allende Letters a Hoax |url=https://www.de173.com/allende-letters-a-hoax/ |pages=1,3 |url-status=live |access-date=2021-07-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210718234027/https://www.de173.com/allende-letters-a-hoax/ |archive-date=2021-07-18 |via=The Philadelphia Experiment From A–Z}}</ref>

Jessup died by suicide in 1959.<ref name="Donovan2011"/>{{rp|106}} In 1963, Gray Barker authored a book alleging Jessup's death was suspicious.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://skepticalinquirer.org/2021/08/solving-a-ufological-murder-the-case-of-morris-k-jessup/ | title=Solving a UFOlogical 'Murder': The Case of Morris K. Jessup &#124; Skeptical Inquirer | date=26 August 2021 }}</ref><ref group="note">The Strange Case of Dr. M.K. Jessup (1963) and The Enigma of M.K. Jessup (1971)</ref> By 1975, the Philadelphia Experiment was being promoted by paranormal author [[Charles Berlitz]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/188427596/ |title=12 Jan 1975, Page 24 - The Greenville News at |publisher=Newspapers.com |date=1975-01-12 |access-date=2022-06-05}}</ref> and in 1984, the legend was adapted into a [[The Philadelphia Experiment (film)|fictional film]]. In 1980, Berlitz co-authored ''[[The Roswell Incident (1980 book)|The Roswell Incident]]''.<ref name="Donovan2011"/>{{rp|106}}

===='Men in Black' legends====
{{main|Men in black}}
[[File:Gray Barker.jpg|thumb|right|Gray Barker poses with his book cover art]]
1956 saw the publication of [[Gray Barker]]'s ''[[They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers]]'', the book which publicized the idea of [[Men in black|Men in Black]] who appear to UFO witnesses and warn them to keep quiet.<ref name="Barkun2006"/>{{rp|82}} There has been continued speculation that the men in black are government agents who harass and threaten UFO witnesses.

According to the ''[[Skeptical Inquirer]]'' article "Gray Barker: My Friend, the Myth-Maker", there may have been "a grain of truth" to Barker's writings on the Men in Black, in that government agencies did attempt to discourage public interest in UFOs during the 1950s. However, Barker is thought to have greatly embellished the facts of the situation. In the same ''Skeptical Inquirer'' article, Sherwood revealed that, in the late 1960s, he and Barker collaborated on a brief fictional notice alluding to the Men in Black, which was published as fact first in [[Raymond A. Palmer]]'s ''[[Flying Saucers (magazine)|Flying Saucers]]'' magazine and some of Barker's own publications. In the story, Sherwood (writing as "Dr. Richard H. Pratt") claimed he was ordered to silence by the "blackmen" after learning that UFOs were time-travelling vehicles. Barker later wrote to Sherwood, "Evidently the fans swallowed this one with a gulp."<ref>John C. Sherwood. [http://www.csicop.org/si/show/gray_barker_my_friend_the_myth-maker/ "Gray Barker: My Friend, the Myth-Maker"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110512004941/http://www.csicop.org/si/show/gray_barker_my_friend_the_myth-maker/ |date=2011-05-12 }}. ''[[Skeptical Inquirer]]''. May/June 1998. Retrieved on June 19, 2008.</ref>

===1960–70s:  Growing distrust in government===
{{main|Michigan "swamp gas" UFO reports}}
The 1960s began an era of government skepticism. After the [[assassination of John F. Kennedy]], the ''[[Pentagon Papers]]'', and the [[Watergate scandal]], trust in the US government declined and acceptance of conspiracy theories became widespread.<ref name="Barkun2006"/>{{rp|2|quote=the
period since the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963 has
seen the rise of a veritable cottage industry of conspiracism, with ever
more complex plots and devious forces behind it"}}<ref name="Gulyas2015"/>{{rp|6|quote=The emergence in the 1970s of the phrase “Cosmic Watergate” indicated a shift in the emphasis of this supposed cover-up. In the wake of the Watergate investigation and hearings
that brought down the Nixon administration, congressional committee hearings on the inappropriate use of intelligence and law enforcement assets against domestic political and civil rights groups as well as examinations of untoward involvement in post-colonial nations’ internal politics revealed a type of government secrecy and intrigue that was distinct from the earlier Cold War espionage culture. Within the UFO community, politicized rhetoric such as the phrase “Cosmic Watergate” indicated a shift toward a conspiratorial style of thinking that was closer to the parapolitics of John F. Kennedy assassination theories and paranoia about the Federal Reserve System than ufology had previously occupied.}}<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|166, 205, 245}}

In 1966, amid a wave (or 'flap') of UFO reports throughout southern Michigan, there were two mass sightings reported. The first occurred around marshland near Dexter, while the second mass-sighting took place near the campus arboretum of Hillsdale College, about 50 miles away.<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|169–171}}

After the reports were attributed to swamp gas by Air Force civilian investigator J. Allen Hynek, the explanation was widely derided.<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|169–172}} The Richmond News Leader accused the Air Force of attempting "to discredit the testimony of witnesses." and US congressman Gerald Ford called for a formal Congressional investigation into the sightings.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WwYRW5zQnQcC|title=Swamp Gas Times: My Two Decades on the UFO Beat|first=Patrick|last=Huyghe|date=June 1, 2001|publisher=Cosimo, Inc.|isbn=978-1-931044-27-1 |via=Google Books}}</ref>{{rp|9|quote="[Hynek] dismissed the sightings as "swamp gas". Those two words created quite a ruckus. The press and public were outraged and their reaction was immediate and hostile. The swamp gas tactic backfired on the Air Force. People were not prepared to just swallow that explanation and forget the whole thing. Michigan Congressman and future President Gerald R. Ford requested that the House Armed Services Committee hold hearings. "The American public deserves a better explanation than that thus far given by the Air Force," he said. The hearings were approved and held on April 5, 1966.}}<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|171}}
Like "weather balloon" before it, the term [[wikt:swamp gas|"swamp gas" came to mean]] any unbelievable debunking.

====Fred Crisman and JFK conspiracy theories====
{{main|Clay Shaw trial}}
[[File:House Select Committee on Assassinations - JFK exhibit F-174 Tramp C and Crisman side-by-side.jpg|thumb|[[Three tramps|"Tramp C"]] (left) compared to Fred Crisman in an exhibit from House Select Committee on Assassinations]]
On March 1, 1967, New Orleans District attorney [[Jim Garrison]] arrested and charged New Orleans businessman [[Clay Shaw]] with having conspired to assassinate [[John F. Kennedy|President Kennedy]].<ref name="Gulyas2015"/>{{rp|30}}<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|263}} Fred Crisman was subpoenaed by Garrison and testified before the New Orleans grand jury in the case.<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|263}} Garrison issued a press release accusing Crisman of being an undercover agent with knowledge of the Kennedy Assassination.<ref name="MirageMen"/>

The jury took less than an hour to find Shaw not guilty.<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|323}} Garrison's prosecution of Shaw was highly criticized as "a fatally flawed case built on flimsy evidence that featured a chorus of dubious and even wacky witnesses" while others more pointedly accuse Garrison of "recklessness, cruelty, abuse of power, publicity mongering and dishonesty".<ref name="UPI; October 22, 1992">{{cite news |author=<!--not stated--> |date=October 22, 1992 |title=Former New Orleans DA, Kennedy prober, Jim Garrison dies |url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1992/10/22/Former-New-Orleans-DA-Kennedy-prober-Jim-Garrison-dies/9416719726400/ |work=upi.com |agency=UPI |access-date=February 7, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Will |first=George |author-link=George Will |date=December 26, 1991 |title='JFK': PARANOID HISTORY |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1991/12/26/jfk-paranoid-history/1353d5cd-9d26-4088-acf7-d3ba5a0f8a0d/ |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=February 7, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Posner |first=Gerald |author-link=Gerald Posner |date=August 6, 1995 |title=Garrison Guilty. Another Case Closed. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/06/magazine/garrison-gulty-another-case-closed.html |work=The New York Times Magazine |page=41 |access-date=February 7, 2023}}</ref>

Despite the near-universal condemnation of the prosecution, conspiracy theories continued to link Crisman to the Kennedy assassination and a supposed UFO cover-up. Crisman had been involved in the Shaver Mystery and the Maury Island Hoax in the 1940s. In the late 1970s, the [[United States House Select Committee on Assassinations]] considered the possibility that Crisman may have been one of the [[Three tramps|"three tramps"]] detained and photographed in the aftermath of the JFK assassination.<ref name="RToronto"/>{{rp|160}} Pointing to Crisman's supposed involvement, later conspiracy authors like Kenn Thomas, Jim Marrs, and Bill Cooper alleged that Kennedy's assassination was tied to a UFO conspiracy.<ref name="Gulyas2015"/>{{rp|quote=For conspiracy researchers like Kenn Thomas, Fred Crisman was a nexus point for a number of conspiracies and cover-ups from the late 1940s until Crisman’s death in 1975|pp=30–31}}

===="Cosmic Watergate"====
In  [[2001: A Space Odyssey|the novel]] and film ''[[2001: A Space Odyssey]]'' by Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick, American discovery of an extraterrestrial artifact prompts a cover up and disinformation campaign with fatal consequence for astronauts sent to investigate.<ref name="PaleHorseRider"/>{{rp|ch. 12}}<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=unbDEAAAQBAJ|title=Conspiracy Theory in Film, Television, and Politics|first=Gordon B.|last=Arnold|date=September 30, 2008|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA|isbn=978-1-56720-722-4 |via=Google Books|quote="Nominally a science fiction film, it nonetheless relies upon conspiratorial underpinnings within its core narrative"}}</ref><!--<ref group="note">While the completed film leaves the cause of HAL's malfunction as ambiguous, his duty to cover-up the truth about the extra-terrestrials causes the malfunction in other incarnation of the story: prior drafts of the script, the novel, the novel's sequel ''2010'' and the sequel's film adaptation.

In the Kubrick film, HAL takes on a paranoid, conspiratorial tone just before his 'malfunction', saying: "I know I've never completely freed myself from the suspicion that there are some extremely odd things about this mission... no one could have been unaware of the very strange stories floating around before we left. Rumors about something being dug up on the Moon. I never gave these stories much credence, but particularly in view of some of other things that have happened, I find them difficult to put out of my mind. For instance, the way all our preparations were kept under such tight security. And the melodramatic touch of putting Drs. Hunter, Kimball and Kaminsky aboard already in hibernation, after four months of training on their own."   Whoever explained it as the first time the viewer realizes the Discovery sequence is connected to the prior segments.  </ref>-->  The film was prominent in [[Moon landing conspiracy theories]], which variously argue that humans never went to the Moon, went there with the assistance of aliens, or even that NASA covered up lunar evidence of aliens.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QStqDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT228|title=Apollo's Legacy: Perspectives on the Moon Landings|first=Roger D.|last=Launius|date=May 14, 2019|publisher=Smithsonian Institution|isbn=978-1-58834-652-0 |via=Google Books|quote=Accordingly, this brand of conspiracy theorist claim that NASA covered up what had been found, in the manner the discovery of a monolith at Clavius Crater on the Moon in 2001: A Space Odyssey}}</ref> One scholar opined that the 1968 film "seems to anticipate the post-Nixonian culture of governmental conspiracy".<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yJGcEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA98|title=Alien-Invasion Films: Imperialism, Race and Gender in the American Security State, 1950-2020|first=Mark E.|last=Wildermuth|date=November 16, 2022|publisher=Springer Nature|isbn=978-3-031-11795-4 |via=Google Books|quote=2001: A Space Odyssey likewise anticipates changes in the mindset of the security state that occur in the next decade. By focusing on the idea of governmental conspiracy to hide the truth about alien invasion and visitation, it seems to anticipate the post-Nixonian culture of governmental conspiracy that emerges with the disclosure of the Pentagon Papers.}}</ref>

[[J. Allen Hynek]] was an American [[astronomer]] who served as scientific advisor to UFO studies undertaken by the U.S. Air Force. Hynek had drawn ridicule for his most famous debunking, in which he suggested a [[Michigan "swamp gas" UFO reports|mass-sighting over Michigan may have been caused by "swamp gas"]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WwYRW5zQnQcC&pg=PA29|title=Swamp Gas Times: My Two Decades on the UFO Beat|first=Patrick|last=Huyghe|date=June 1, 2001|publisher=Cosimo, Inc.|isbn=978-1-931044-27-1 |via=Google Books}}</ref> By 1974, the former skeptic was publicly charging that Bluebook was "a Cosmic Watergate".<ref name="Gulyas2015"/>{{rp|6}}<!--<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/94299319/ufo-center-set-up-to-end-buffoonery/|title = UFO Center Set UP to End 'Buffoonery'|author=Terence Dickinson|newspaper = Florida Today|date = 22 January 1974|pages = 4A}}</ref>--> Hynek claimed 20% of Bluebook cases were unexplained. Fellow Ufologist like Stanton Friedman echoed Hynek's "Cosmic Watergate" accusations.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/94299440/anyone-there-ufos-are-real-says-physic/|title = Anyone there? UFOs are real, says physicist|author=Bob Matyi|newspaper = Evansville Courier and Press|date = 18 October 1977|page = 1}}</ref> In 1976, pulp publisher Ray Palmer argued "there is a definite link between flying saucers, The Shaver Mystery, The Kennedy’s assassinations, Watergate and [[Fred Crisman]]."<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1JQmnwEACAAJ|title=The Maury Island UFO Incident: The Story Behind the Air Force's First Military Plane Crash|first1=Charlette|last1=LeFevre|first2=Philip|last2=Lipson|date=November 3, 2013|publisher=CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform|isbn=978-1-4936-7496-1 |via=Google Books}}</ref><ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|323|quote=Crisman was the perfect suspect to create a “link” between UFOs, the occult, and the various assassination theories. His testimony was never released and he is now dead. Garrison’s investigation was worthless, relying on hearsay, nonexistent “links,” and spurious “unanswered questions.” Most of the “suspects” were dead by the time Garrison sought indictments. }}

During the 1976 US presidential campaign, Jimmy Carter pledged that if elected, he would "make every piece of information this country has about UFOs available to the public and scientists".<ref name="Donovan2011"/>{{rp|124–125}}

====Alien bodies at "Hangar 18"====
In the mid-1970s, legends of alien bodies re-emerged in the popular lore.<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|242, 321}}    The idea of alien corpses from a crashed ship being stored in an Air Force morgue at the [[Wright-Patterson Air Force Base]] was mentioned in Scully's ''Behind the Flying Saucers'',<ref name="Baker-2024">{{cite magazine |last=Baker |first=Nicholson |date=31 January 2024 |title=How We Lost Our Minds About UFOs |url=https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/leslie-kean-ufo-sightings-aliens.html |magazine=New York Magazine}}</ref> expanded in the  1966 book ''[[Incident at Exeter]]'', and became the basis for a 1968 science-fiction novel ''[[The Fortec Conspiracy]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Fuller |first=John G. |author-link=John G. Fuller |url=https://archive.org/details/incidentatexeter0000john |title=Incident at Exeter |date=1966 |publisher=G. P. Putnam's Sons |location=New York |oclc=712083}}</ref>{{rp|87–88}}<ref name="Smith-2000-p82">{{cite book |last=Smith |first=Toby |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9qSxyR0i6goC |title=Little Gray Men: Roswell and the Rise of a Popular Culture |date=2000 |publisher=University of New Mexico Press |isbn=978-0-8263-2121-3 |location=Albuquerque}}</ref>{{rp|82}} ''Fortec'' was about a fictional cover-up by the [[National Air and Space Intelligence Center#Foreign Technology Division|Air Force unit charged with reverse-engineering]] other nations' technical advancements.<ref name="Smith-2000-p82"/>

In 1974, science-fiction author and conspiracy theorist [[Robert Spencer Carr]] alleged that alien bodies recovered from the Aztec crash were stored in "Hangar 18" at Wright-Patterson.<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|242, 321}} Carr claimed that his sources had witnessed the alien autopsy,<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|244}} another idea later incorporated into the Roswell narrative.<ref>{{cite book |last=Disch |first=Thomas M. |author-link=Thomas M. Disch |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0meRTMfDOt4C&pg=PA53 |title=The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made of: How Science Fiction Conquered the World |date=July 5, 2000 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-0-684-85978-1 |location=New York}}</ref>{{rp|53–54}}<ref>{{cite news |url=https://aadl.org/node/198259 |title=Air Force Freezes UFO Story |via=Ann Arbor District Library |newspaper=[[Ann Arbor Sun]] |date=November 1, 1974 |agency=Zodiac News Service}}</ref> The Air Force explained that no "Hangar 18" existed at the base, noting a similarity between Carr's story and the fictional ''Fortec Conspiracy''.<ref>{{cite news |last=Jones |first=Jack |date=October 12, 1974 |title=No Green Men Here, Base Officials Say |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/dayton-daily-news-no-green-men-here-bas/159065544/ |work=Dayton Daily News |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> In the mid-1970s, author [[Leonard H. Stringfield]] promoted tales of UFO crash retrievals.<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|240–243}}  In 1977, recurring SNL characters [[The Coneheads]] were contacted by an Air Force investigator (Buck Henry) after an extraterrestrial artifact crashes in the Southwestern US.<ref>Saturday Night Live, May 21, 1977</ref> The 1980 film ''[[Hangar 18 (film)|Hangar 18]]'', which dramatized Carr's claims, was described as "a modern-day dramatization" of Roswell by the film's director [[James L. Conway]],<ref name="Erdmann-p287">{{cite book |last1=Erdmann |first1=Terry J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kDe3VS07YSMC&pg=PA287 |title=Deep Space Nine Companion |last2=Block |first2=Paula M. |date=2000 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-0-671-50106-8 |location=New York}}</ref>{{rp|287}} and as "nascent Roswell mythology" by folklorist Thomas Bullard.<ref name="Bullard"/>{{rp|331}}

Decades later, Carr's son recalled that he had often "mortified my mother and me by spinning preposterous stories in front of strangers... [tales of] befriending a giant alligator in the Florida swamps, and sharing complex philosophical ideas with porpoises in the Gulf of Mexico."<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Carr |first=Timothy |date=July 1997 |title=Son of Originator of 'Alien Autopsy' Story Casts Doubt on Father's Credibility |url=https://cdn.centerforinquiry.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/1997/07/22165005/p31.pdf |magazine=Skeptical Inquirer |volume=21 |issue=4}}</ref>{{rp|32}}  <!--====''Alternative 3'' and a secret space program====
Many UFO conspiracy theory tales "can be traced to a mock documentary ''[[Alternative 3]]'', broadcast on British television on June 20, 1977 (but intended for [[April Fools' Day]]), and subsequently turned into a paperback book."<!--ref>Clark ''The UFO Book'', p. 213–14</ref>
Barkun similarly notes that elements of the film were later incorporated into UFO conspiracy theories.<ref name="Barkun2006"/>{{rp|86-87|quote=When the scenario of Alternative 3 came to be enfolded within ufological conspiracism, it suggested that UFO conspiracy theories could go in two different directions. The first insisted on the reality of a threat from outer space, with human conspirators involved as the aliens’ lackeys or collaborators. The other direction, following the Alternative 3 suggestion, claimed that UFOs from outer
space were a deception concocted by the conspirators for their own malevolent purposes, in order to deflect attention from the real evil."}}<!--According to the fictional research presented in the episode, it was claimed that missing scientists were involved in a secret American/Soviet plan in [[outer space]], and further suggested that interplanetary space travel had been possible for much longer than was commonly accepted. The episode featured a fictional [[Project Apollo|Apollo]] astronaut  who claims to have stumbled on a mysterious lunar base during his moonwalk.

It was claimed that scientists had determined that the [[Earth]]'s surface would be unable to support life for much longer, due to [[pollution]] leading to catastrophic [[climate change]]. Physicist "Dr Carl Gerstein" (played by [[Richard Marner]]) claimed to have proposed in 1957 that there were three alternatives to this problem. The first alternative was the drastic reduction of the human population on Earth. The second alternative was the construction of vast underground shelters to house government officials and a cross section of the population until the climate had stabilized. The third alternative, the so-called "Alternative 3", was to populate [[Mars]] via a [[Wiktionary:way station|way station]] on the Moon.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://binnallofamerica.com/rr6.20.8.html|title=Richard's Room 101|website=binnallofamerica.com|access-date=18 November 2016}}</ref> The final moments of the film feature the discovery of animal life on the surface of Mars.-->

===="Alien Abductions"====
In 1975, millions of Americans watched when NBC aired film [[The UFO Incident]], a dramatization of the Betty and Barney Hill case, the first reported "alien abduction".<ref name="Gulyas2015"/>{{rp|44}} In 1961, the Hills reportedly witnessed an unidentified light in the night sky as they were driving from Montreal to Portsmouth. Under hypnosis, Barney told a story of being abducted and drew a picture of an alien with large, wrap-around eyes—the first report of a [[Grey alien|"gray" alien]].<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|236}}     [[Recovered-memory therapy]] is not based on scientific evidence, and recovered memories are indistinguishable from [[false memories]].<ref name="PWiwN">{{Cite web |url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/alien-abduction-or-accidental-awareness/ |title=Alien Abduction or "Accidental Awareness"? |first=Anne |last=Skomorowsky|website=[[Scientific American]]|access-date=April 27, 2021 |archive-date=April 27, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210427025801/https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/alien-abduction-or-accidental-awareness/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Psychologists and skeptics argued that "after viewing this movie, any person with a little imagination could now become an instant celebrity" by claiming an abduction, concluding that "one of those instant celebrities was Travis Walton."<ref name="Clancy2009"/>

Two weeks after the film aired, an Arizona crew working on a Forestry contract reported that member [[Travis Walton incident|Travis Walton]] had been abducted by a flying saucer.<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|227}}<ref name="PubDeceiv">{{cite book |last1=Klass |first1=Phillip J. |title=UFOs: The Public Deceived |date=1983 |publisher=Prometheus Books |location=Buffalo, N.Y |url=https://archive.org/details/ufospublicdeceiv0000klas_o9o5/}}</ref> Science writers [[Philip J. Klass]] and [[Michael Shermer]] highlight a potential motive for the hoax was to provide an "[[Act of God]]" that would allow the crew to avoid a steep financial penalty from the Forestry Service for failing to complete their contract by the deadline.<ref name="Shermer">{{cite web|last=Shermer|first=Michael|title=Travis Walton's Alien Abduction|url=http://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/12-08-15/|magazine=[[Skeptic (U.S. magazine)|Skeptic]]|publisher=[[The Skeptics Society]]|language=en-US|url-status=live|date=August 15, 2012|access-date=April 27, 2016|archive-date=August 23, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120823221138/http://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/12-08-15/}}</ref><ref name="PubDeceiv"/>  The Walton case is widely regarded as a hoax, even by believers of UFOs and alien abductions.<ref name="PubDeceiv"/><ref name="Clancy2009">{{cite book|author=Susan A. Clancy|title=Abducted: How People Come to Believe They Were Kidnapped by Aliens|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U8fqoTvsvUEC&pg=PA99|year= 2009|publisher=[[Harvard University Press]]|isbn=978-0-674-02957-6|pages=99–}}</ref><ref name="AP">{{cite web|title=Sheriff Skeptical of Story: Saucer Traveler Hiding After Returning To Earth|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=861&dat=19751113&id=1RJZAAAAIBAJ&pg=2223,2068472&hl=en|website=The Victoria Advocate|publisher=[[Associated Press]], Nov 13, 1975|access-date=April 26, 2016}}</ref>

By 1976, artist and amateur UFO researcher [[Budd Hopkins]] began focusing on abduction reports;  Hopkins popularized the reports in his 1981 book ''Missing Time'' and its 1987 follow-up ''Intruders''.<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|235–238}} Also in 1987, established horror author Whitley Strieber released [[Communion (book)|''Communion'']], an ostensibly non-fiction autobiographical abduction tale;  It topped the New York Times bestseller list.<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|235–238}}
Strieber's book popularized the idea of alien 'visitors' associated with anal probes.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m4DiDUvrbqYC | title=Screams of Reason: Mad Science and Modern Culture | isbn=978-0-393-04582-6 | last1=Skal | first1=David J. | date=1998 | publisher=W. W. Norton & Company }}</ref>{{rp|215}} In 1989, the book was adapted into [[Communion (1989 film)|a film of the same name]], starring Christopher Walken.

====''Close Encounters of the Third Kind''====
[[File:Allen Hynek Jacques Vallee 1.jpg|thumb|right|J. Allen Hynek (left) and Jacques Vallee were both involved in ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'']]
In 1974, the film ''[[UFOs: Past, Present, and Future]]'' dramatized an ostensibly-historical meeting between humans and aliens who land after being summoned.<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|207}}<ref name="MirageMen"/>{{rp|ch 12}} The filmmakers reported being told by military officials that a UFO had landed at Holloman Air Force Base.<ref name="MirageMen"/>{{rp|ch 12}}<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2009/sep/04/district-9-ufo-hollywood | title=District 9 is lucky to have avoided a close encounter with the Pentagon | work=The Guardian | date=4 September 2009 | last1=Alford | first1=Matthew | last2=Graham | first2=Robbie }}</ref> The depiction of a landing in the blockbuster ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' has been called a "thinly veiled reference to the Holloman landing" story.<ref name="MirageMen"/>{{rp|ch 12|quote="The climax of Close Encounters of the Third Kind is an elaborate, disco remix of the alleged event"}}<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vHlZAAAAMAAJ|title = Saucer Movies: A UFOlogical History of the Cinema|isbn = 9780810835733|last1 = Meehan|first1 = Paul|year = 1998| publisher=Scarecrow Press }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HWYvNErLKHsC | title=Project Beta: The Story of Paul Bennewitz, National Security, and the Creation of a Modern UFO Myth | isbn=978-1-4165-1339-1 | last1=Bishop | first1=Greg | date=15 February 2005 | publisher=Simon and Schuster }}</ref>{{rp|202}} The Holloman story would be later promoted by hoaxer Richard Doty.<ref name="MirageMen"/>{{rp|ch 12}}

On December 14, 1977, the Spielberg blockbuster film ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' premiered and brought UFO conspiracy theories to a global market.<ref name="Barkun2006"/>{{rp|30}}<ref name="Gulyas2015"/>{{rp|44}}<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|234}} The film opens with a United Nations recovery of [[Flight 19]], lost in the Bermuda Triangle some 32 years prior, in Mexico's Sonora desert; Since Keyhoe's 1955 book ''The Flying Saucer Conspiracy'', theorists had linked Flight 19's disappearance to flying saucers.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wxXYEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA74 | title=Alien Abduction in the Cinema: A History from the 1950s to Today | isbn=978-1-4766-8827-5 | last1=Meehan | first1=Paul | date=17 August 2023 | publisher=McFarland }}</ref>  <!--Early in the film, power company lineman Roy Neary is dispatched to investigate nighttime power outages;  Loss of power had been associated with UFOs since 1951's ''The Day The Earth Stood Still'' and the 1957 [[Levelland UFO case|Levelland case]]. After witnessing a series of UFOs, Neary suffers a 'sunburn' -- sunburns has been included in UFO reports since at least the 1957 case of James Stokes. Neary attends an Air Force press conference, where the sightings are dismissed and ridiculed.

Meanwhile, in Mongolia's Gobi desert, UN researchers discover the [[SS Cotopaxi]], lost in the Bermuda Triangle in 1925. In India, UN researchers record a brief musical motif from villagers who claim they heard it from a UFO. A specific recorded audio signature emitted by a UFO, and used to summon them, had previously been featured in the 1956 film ''Earth vs. the Flying Saucers''.

By broadcasting the musical signature, UN researchers receive a reply directing them to Devil's Tower, Wyoming. To clear the 'ranching country' of civilians, authorities consider faking an anthrax outbreak before ultimately deciding to create a cover story of a train derailment leaking nerve gas.

After his encounter, Neary begins obsessively sculpting a peculiar shape, which he later realizes is Devil's Tower. Alien "contactees" receiving telepathic contact, psychic vision, or 'downloads' had been part of UFO conspiracy lore since the 1940s and 1950s, exemplified by Meade Layne and George Adamski. --> The film's subplot of an "exchange program" of humans visiting aliens would later resurface in conspiracy theory as [[Project Serpo]].<ref name="MirageMen"/>{{rp|ch 12|quote="The climax of Close Encounters of the Third Kind is an elaborate, disco remix of the alleged event, which also formed the centrepiece of the Serpo story thirty years later."}}{{rp|x|quote="Beyond the main event of the ET–human exchange, there really wasn’t anything in the Serpo story that wasn’t already present in the UFO lore. Any movie buff could also point out the obvious parallels to Steven Spielberg’s UFO epic Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which climaxes with the landing of a colossal disco-ball UFO at a secret site near Devil’s Tower in Wyoming. Here Richard Dreyfus’s character joins twelve military personnel who board the ET craft, presumably to be taken to the benevolent aliens’ planet"}}

Legendary French  filmmaker [[François Truffaut]] played a character inspired by French UFO investigator [[Jacques Vallee]], an advisor to the film.<ref name="PaleHorseRider"/>{{rp|x|quote="An early sign of slippage occurred when he agreed to sit for an interview with with Jacques Vallée, the single-most-respected investigator in the history of the field. Educated at the Sorbonne, an astrophysicist and futurist, model for the part played by François Truffaut in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Vallée brought a rare touch of continental class to the US military/nerd-dominated ufology subculture."}}Real life debunker-turned-believer [[J. Allen Hynek]] made a cameo in the film.<ref name="MirageMen"/>   In coming years, conspiracy figure John Lear and others would allege that powerful insiders had "subtly promoted" ''Close Encounters'' and other films to 'educate' the public.<ref name="Barkun2006"/>{{rp|30|quote= "In a 1987 press statement, John Lear, the estranged son of inventor William Lear, claimed not only that the U.S. government had close and continuing contacts with extraterrestrials, but that an inner circle of powerful officials had “subtly promoted” the films ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'' and ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' so that the public would come to think of extraterrestrials as benevolent “space
brothers.” Somewhat similar claims were made by conspiracy writer
Milton William Cooper, who said that the films were “thinly disguised”
descriptions of contacts that took place in the early 1950s between extraterrestrials and the government.}}
<!-- Spielberg would return to the theme in E.T. -->

====Jesse Marcel and Roswell====
{{Main|Roswell Incident}}
[[File:Marcel-roswell-debris 0.jpg|thumb|right|Jesse Marcel holding foil debris from the Roswell incident in 1947]]
In February 1978, UFO researcher [[Stanton T. Friedman|Stanton Friedman]] interviewed [[Jesse Marcel]], the only person known to have accompanied the Roswell debris from where it was recovered to [[Fort Worth]] where reporters saw material that was claimed to be part of the recovered object.<ref name="Barkun2006"/>{{rp|81}}<ref name="Gulyas2015"/>{{rp|92–93}}<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|246–251}} Marcel's statements contradicted those he made to the press in 1947.<ref name="FWStar">{{Cite news|title=New Mexico Rancher's 'Flying Disk' Proves to Be Weather Balloon-Kite|date=1947-07-09|work=[[Fort Worth Star-Telegram]]|publication-place=Fort Worth, TX|pages=1, 4}}</ref> Marcel revealed that the 1947 "weather balloon" had been a cover story, saying: "They wanted some comments from me, but I wasn't at liberty to do that. So, all I could do is keep my mouth shut. And General Ramey is the one who discussed – told the newspapers, I mean the newsman, what it was, and to forget about it. It is nothing more than a weather observation balloon. Of course, we both knew differently."<ref name="autogenerated1">"UFO Coverups". In Search Of.... Season 5. Episode 1. September 20, 1980.</ref><ref name="wyrar">{{cite web|url=https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Primetime/story?id=528860&page=1|title=Aliens Changed Roswell, Even Without Proof|website=ABC News}}</ref>

Uncertain of the material's origin, Marcel would speculate the debris might have been extraterrestrial. In all his statements, Marcel consistently denied the presence of bodies.<ref name="wwbV0">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aUEYAQAAMAAJ|title=The Skeptical Inquirer|date=April 29, 1998|publisher=Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal.|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref name="korff-csi">{{cite journal | last=Korff | first=Kal | date=August 1997 | url=https://skepticalinquirer.org/1997/07/what-really-happened-at-roswell/ | title=What Really Happened at Roswell | journal=Skeptical Inquirer | volume=21 | issue=4 | access-date=February 5, 2013 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140418144129/http://www.csicop.org/si/show/what_really_happened_at_roswell | archive-date=April 18, 2014 | url-status=live |ref=none}}</ref> On February 28, 1980, [[sensationalist]] [[Tabloid journalism|tabloid]] the ''[[National Enquirer]]'' brought large-scale attention to the Roswell story.<ref name="GqgXu">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H9ij_QAvyEEC&pg=PA233|title=Before and After Roswell: The Flying Saucer in America, 1947–1999|first=David A.|last=Clary|date=January 22, 2001|publisher=Xlibris Corporation|isbn=9781462841295|via=Google Books}}</ref>

In the 1990s, the US military published two reports disclosing the true nature of the crashed aircraft: a surveillance balloon from Project Mogul. Nevertheless, the Roswell incident continues to be of interest to the media, and conspiracy theories surrounding the event persist. Roswell has been described as "the world's most famous, most exhaustively investigated and most thoroughly debunked UFO claim".<ref>{{cite journal |title=A Roswell requiem |first=B.D. |last=Gildenberg |journal=Skeptic |volume=10 |issue=1 |year=2003 |page=60}}</ref>
<!--====Gordon Cooper====
By 1981,<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H_BO36JhUSMC|title = Riddle of Hangar Eighteen|isbn = 9780787312060|last1 = Beckley|first1 = Timothy Green|date = June 1987| publisher=Health Research Books }}</ref>{{better source needed|date=December 2021}} astronaut [[Gordon Cooper]] reported suppression of a flying saucer movie filmed in high clarity by two [[Edwards AFB]] range photographers on May 3, 1957. Cooper said he viewed developed negatives of the object, clearly showing a dish-like object with a dome on top and something like holes or ports in the dome. When later interviewed by [[James E. McDonald|James McDonald]], the photographers and another witness confirmed the story. Cooper said military authorities then picked up the film and neither he nor the photographers ever heard what happened to it. The incident was also reported in a few newspapers, such as the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]''. The official explanation was that the photographers had filmed a weather balloon distorted by hot desert air.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ufoevidence.org/Newsite/Files/MacDonaldSubmissionUFOSymposium.pdf|title=McDonald, 1968 Congressional testimony, Case 41|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060624204634/http://www.ufoevidence.org/Newsite/Files/MacDonaldSubmissionUFOSymposium.pdf|archive-date=2006-06-24}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=December 2021}}-->

===Doty and Lear promote the "Dark Side"===
In the 1980s, UFO conspiracy theories began to incorporate politics, alleging that the US Government was in league with an evil alien race. By way of  contrast with prior UFO conspiracy theories about benevolent 'space brothers', author Jerome Clark named this new strain of thinking "ufology's dark side".
<ref name="Barkun2006"/>{{rp|97|quote=By the early 1990s, therefore, at least some of the ufology literature had gone through several transformations. It had become intensely politicized. It insisted that powerful elements in the U.S. government were in continuing collaboration with an evil, alien race. And it claimed that in order to protect this information, the secret government was prepared to destroy American liberties. From 1986 to about 1990, the activities of Andrews, Lear, Cooper, and Valerian created a conspiracist form of UFO speculation, which Jerome Clark refers to as ufology’s "dark side."}}

Richard Doty, who identified as a special agent with the [[Air Force Office of Special Investigations]] at [[Kirtland Air Force Base|Kirtland AFB]], was a source for much of this new 'dark' mythology.<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|253|quote=The next major figure in the development of the alien myth was Set. Richard C. Doty, a special agent with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations at Kirtland AFB.}}
Another important figure during this era was [[John Lear]], son of Learjet founder William Powell Lear.<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|258|quote=He met with Linda Moulton Howe and John Lear (son of Learjet inventor Bill Lear) who would have key roles in the spread and embellishment of Bennewitz’s ideas.}}  Pilkington argues that in the second half of the 1980s, Lear was "probably the most influential source" of UFO conspiracy information.<ref name="MirageMen"/>{{rp|x|quote=Probably the most influential source of information in this period was John Lear.}}

====Cattle mutilations and quiet helicopters====
{{Location map+|New Mexico|float=right|marksize=6|mark=Black pog.svg
 |places=
 {{Location map~|New Mexico|lat_dir=N|lat_deg=36|lat_min=40|lat_sec=40|lon_dir=W|lon_deg=107|lon_min=12|lon_sec=33|position=bottom|background=#FFFFFF|label=Detonation Site|marksize=15|mark=Radiation warning symbol 4.svg}}
| caption        = Project Gasbuggy detonation site, only 12 miles away from Dulce
}}

During the 1970s, the Colorado-New Mexico border region was a hotspot for cattle mutilation reports, especially the small town of Dulce, New Mexico on the [[Jicarilla Apache Indian Reservation]].<ref name="Barkun2006"/>{{rp|quote=The Colorado–New Mexico border region had emerged as one of the major sites for the cattle-mutilation stories then current in the West, and as discussed in chapter 5, when cattle-mutilation stories appeared, reports of UFO sightings were generally not far behind. At the center of the reports in the Dulce area was a New Mexico State Police officer, Gabriel Valdez, who had been reporting sensational mutilations since the mid 1970s.}}  Ranchers reported sightings of unusual lights, UFOs, and  "[[black helicopters|quiet helicopters]]" associated with the mutilations.<ref name="Barkun2006"/>{{rp|69-70|quote=He links the pre-1993 sightings to reports of western cattle mutilations but claims that those thereafter “more often were seen in urban settings and flying in formation, or in the context of covert military maneuvers.”}}  Law enforcement recovered radar chaff, syringes, and a gas mask;  Some of the corpses had rope marks and broken bones, as if they had been hoisted onto a helicopter and dropped onto he ground.<ref name="MirageMen"/>{{rp|x|quote="Back in the 1970s, Valdez’s investigation had focused on  the ranch of Manuel Gomez, whose cattle had suffered particularly badly; alongside dead and mutilated animals he’d found caterpillar tracks, bits of paper, measuring tools, syringes, needles and a gas mask. One site was covered with radar-reflecting chaff, some of it stuffed into the dead cow’s mouth. Some of the animals had broken bones and what appeared to be rope marks on their limbs, suggesting that they had been hoisted up then dropped back on to the ground. Whoever was doing this to the cattle, they were organized, and human."}}  After ranchers took to firing on unidentified helicopters, the US Bureau of Land Management was forced to ground all helicopters in Eastern Colorado.<ref name="Goleman">{{cite journal | url=https://doi.org/10.3098/ah.2011.85.3.398 | doi=10.3098/ah.2011.85.3.398 | title=Wave of Mutilation: The Cattle Mutilation Phenomenon of the 1970s | date=2011 | last1=Goleman | first1=Michael J. | journal=Agricultural History | volume=85 | issue=3 | pages=398–417 | pmid=21901905 }}</ref> Writing in 2010, Pilkington reflects: "The silent helicopter has now been revealed as not only a reality, but one that was flying as long ago as 1972. This was the [[Stealth helicopter#History|Hughes 500P]], the P standing for Penetrator, an aircraft known by the few who flew it as ‘The Quiet One’."<ref name="MirageMen"/>

By 1976, some UFO conspiracy theorists argued that supposed [[cattle mutilations]] were caused by extra-terrestrial UFOs.<ref name="Barkun2006"/>{{rp|85|quote=1976 was also the year that some ufologists began to link UFOs with cattle mutilations.}}  In 1979, the idea of aliens causing "mutiliations" was ridiculed when it was reported that a mutilated bull had been drugged with [[Chlorpromazine|Thorazine]]; Law enforcement told press: "We know this stuff is made here, and it isn't from outer space. Whoever is doing it is highly sophisticated, and they have a lot of resources. They're well organized".<ref name="SF82_drugged">{{cite news | url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-santa-fe-new-mexican-police-find-dru/127526346/ | title=The Santa Fe New Mexican 02 May 1979, page 9 | newspaper=The Santa Fe New Mexican | date=2 May 1979 | page=9 }}</ref><ref name="MirageMen"/>

Pilkington suggests the 'mutilations' may have been a covert epidemiological monitoring program, perhaps of radiation. In 1967, the [[United States Atomic Energy Commission]] had detonated an underground nuclear device near Dulce as part of [[Project Gasbuggy]].<ref name="MirageMen"/>{{rp|x|quote=the most plausible explanation for the phenomenon has its roots in epidemiology. A number of researchers have raised the possibility that the mutilations were part of a clandestine study or experiment. The parts of the animal that are usually removed by the mutilators – lips, tongue, anus, udders and genitalia – are those most prone to contamination and infection. ... Perhaps the mutilating agency was looking for signs of environmental damage caused by radiation from the Gasbuggy test leaking into the surrounding area?}}<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|217}}

====Doty deceives mutiliation researchers====
{{main|Mirage Men|Paul Bennewitz}}

The late 1970s also saw the beginning of controversy centered on [[Paul Bennewitz]].<ref name="Barkun2006"/>{{rp|111}}<ref name="MirageMen"/>
On April 20, 1979,  U.S. Attorney R. E. Thompson and US Senator [[Harrison Schmidt]] held a public meeting about cattle mutilations. The meeting was attended by about 80, one attendee was Paul Bennewitz, an amateur UFO investigator.<ref name="MirageMen"/>{{rp|87–88}} Bennewitz was befriended by Richard Doty, an Air Force Sergeant, who fed him false stories of a UFO conspiracy, government treaties with extraterrestrials, and alien harvesting of cattle.<ref name="MirageMen"/>  This material inspired much of the post-1980 UFO mythology.<ref name="MirageMen"/>{{rp|x|quote=Doty and Bennewitz were the conduits, if not the source, for much of the UFO mythology that had emerged since the early 1980s. Stories about crashed UFOs, US government pacts with nasty ETs, alien harvesting of cattle and manipulation of human DNA, which had gained in potency and authenticity as they were retold through countless books, articles, films and TV documentaries.}}   The earliest known reference to "MJ Twelve" comes from a 1981 document used in disinformation targeting Paul Bennewitz.<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|258–259}}

Paul Bennewitz was ultimately hospitalized for paranoia.<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|258|quote=Bennewitz himself was becoming increasingly erratic—he claimed the aliens were coming through the walls at night and injecting him with chemicals. Finally, he suffered a mental breakdown and was hospitalized.}}  Doty would appear in the 2013 documentary ''[[Mirage Men]]'' to discuss his role in deceiving Bennewitz. While Doty claims Bennewitz was targeted for inadvertently recording classified technology at Kirtland Air Force Base, Pilkington argues that government agents likely targeted Bennewitz due to his participation in the 1979 meeting on cattle mutilations around Dulce.<ref name="MirageMen"/>{{rp|ch. 11}}<ref>Greenwood, Barry and Brad Sparks, ‘The Secret Pratt Tapes and the Origins of MJ-12’, MUFON Symposium Proceedings 2007, as quoted in Mirage Men Ch. 11 p.88</ref>

[[File:Linda1981EmmyStrangeHarvest300dpi.jpg|150px|thumb|right|Linda Moulton Howe in 1981]]
In 1979, [[Linda Moulton Howe]] was a documentarian exploring cattle mutilations.<ref name="Barkun2006"/>{{rp|86|quote="In 1979, Linda Moulton Howe, a Denver filmmaker, began work on a documentary that alleged a mutilation-UFO connection. The film, A Strange Harvest, was broadcast in 1980. She later stated that “I am convinced that one or more alien intelligences are affecting this planet. I would like to know who they are, what they want and why the government is silent.” Howe and others, influenced by her film and subsequent publications, began to speculate that aliens mutilated cattle in order to secure body parts or biological substances they needed for their own survival, and that the U.S. government was complicit in these efforts. The idea that aliens were engaged in some obscure effort to “harvest” or otherwise retrieve biological substances from the earth has
turned out to be a fertile subject for speculation, which eventually came
to include such suggestions as the breeding of alien-human hybrids"}}<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|218}}<ref name="MirageMen"/>  In 1980, Moulton Howe's documentary "A Strange Harvest" alleged that cattle mutilations were connected to UFOs.<ref name="Barkun2006"/>{{rp|86}} In April 1983,  Moulton Howe travelled to visit Richard Doty and Kirtland Air Force Base.<ref name="MirageMen"/>{{rp|x|quote=In April 1983, Howe was invited out to Kirtland by Doty}}

At Kirtland, Doty showed Moulton Howe fabricated documents purporting to be presidential briefing papers. The documents told of UFOs crashes at Roswell, surviving aliens, MJ-12, and a UFO coverup. For decades, Doty denied Moulton Howe's retelling of these events, but in the late 2000s, he would acknowledge the exchange took place, admitting "We gave Linda [...] some bad information."<ref name="MirageMen"/>{{rp|x|quote=We may not know exactly why, but we know they did it and, twenty-four years later, Doty admits that the exchange took place, much as Linda Howe described it. Its purpose was connected to AFOSI’s disinformation programme against Bennewitz. As Doty  put it: ‘We gave Linda some good information, and some bad information. She chose the bad information.’ }}  Howe became a "staunch advocate" for these 'dark' conspiracy theories that the U.S. government is working with aliens.<ref name="Knight2003">{{cite book|author=Peter Knight|title=Conspiracy Theories in American History: An Encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qMIDrggs8TsC&pg=PA125|access-date=18 October 2012|year=2003|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-57607-812-9|pages=125–}}</ref><ref name="Barkun2006" />  She would later be called one of "the gurus of American ufology".<ref name="Schultz1999">{{cite book|author=Nancy Lusignan Schultz|title=Fear Itself: Enemies Real & Imagined in American Culture|url=https://archive.org/details/fearitselfenemie00schu|url-access=registration|year=1999|publisher=Purdue University Press|isbn=978-1-55753-115-5|pages=[https://archive.org/details/fearitselfenemie00schu/page/415 415]–}}</ref>

====Doty and Bill Moore spread bogus MJ-12 docs====
{{main|Majestic 12}}
{{external media
| video1 = [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCsKMZKgeHY Bill Moore addresses MUFON,  July 1 1989]<ref name="Gulyas2015"/>{{rp|8–9}}<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|269}}
}}

After the publication of ''The Roswell Incident'', [[Richard C. Doty]] and other individuals presenting themselves as Air Force Intelligence Officers approached Moore.<ref name="Goldberg-2001-p213">{{cite book |last=Goldberg |first=Robert Alan |author-link=Robert Alan Goldberg |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z8e5YELGGFAC |title=Enemies Within: the Culture of Conspiracy in Modern America |date=2001 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-13294-6 |location=New Haven, Connecticut |chapter=Chapter 6: The Roswell Incident |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z8e5YELGGFAC&pg=PA189}}</ref>{{rp|213}} They used the unfulfilled promise of hard evidence of extraterrestrial retrievals to recruit Moore, who kept notes on other ufologists and intentionally spread misinformation within the UFO community.<ref name="Goldberg-2001-p213"/>

On December 11, 1984, filmmaker Jaime Shandera received an anonymous parcel containing an undeveloped roll of film;  When developed, the film was found to contain a copy of what is now known as the "Majestic 12 documents".  {{rp|quote="According to those involved, on December 11, 1984,  filmmaker Jaime Shandera received a parcel containing an undeveloped roll of film".}}  Shandera received the package just after a phone call from Moore.<ref>{{cite book |last=Korff |first=Kal |url=https://archive.org/details/roswellufocrashw0000korf |title=The Roswell UFO Crash: What They Don't Want You to Know |date=1997 |publisher=Prometheus Books |isbn=978-1-57392-127-5 |edition=First |location=Amherst, New York}}</ref>{{rp|170}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Blum |first=Howard |date= 1990 |title=Out There: The Government's Secret Quest for Extraterrestrials |publisher=Simon and Schuster |location=New York |isbn=978-0-671-66260-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/outtheregovernme00blum}}</ref>{{rp|240}} The documents detailed the creation of a group, "Majestic 12", was formed to handle Roswell debris.<ref>{{cite book |last=May |first=Andrew |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2O0QDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA62 |title=Pseudoscience and Science Fiction |date=2016 |publisher=Springer International |isbn=978-3-319-42605-1 |location=Cham, Zug}}
</ref>{{rp|68–69}}

On October 14, 1988, actor [[Mike Farrell]] hosted ''[[UFO Cover Up? Live]]'', a two-hour television special "focusing on the government's handling of information regarding UFOs" and "whether there has been any suppression of evidence supporting the existence of UFOs".<ref name="Gulyas2015"/>{{rp|20}}<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|268}} The program interviewed shadow-clad informants Falcon (Richard Doty) and Condor about the Majestic 12 documents.<ref name="MirageMen"/>  The program was noted for its claim of an alien being, held at Area 51, who liked to eat strawberry ice cream.<ref name="MirageMen"/>

The Majestic-12 materials have been heavily scrutinized and discredited.<ref name="Gulyas2016"/>  [[Carl Sagan]] criticized the complete lack of [[provenance]] of documents "miraculously dropped on a doorstep like something out of a fairy story, perhaps '[[The Elves and the Shoemaker]]'."<ref name="DemonHaunted">{{cite book |last=Sagan |first=Carl |author-link=Carl Sagan |url=https://archive.org/details/B-001-001-709 |title=The Demon-Haunted World |date=1997 |publisher=Headline |isbn=978-0-7472-5156-9 |edition=Paperback |location=London}}</ref>{{rp|88}} Researchers noted the idiosyncratic date format not found in government documents from the time they were purported to originate, but widely used in Moore's personal notes.<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|266}} Some signatures appear to be photocopied from other documents.<ref>{{harvnb|Goldberg|2001|p=206}}</ref> For example, a signature from President Harry Truman is identical to one from an October 1, 1947 letter to Vannevar Bush.<ref>{{harvnb|Korff|1997|p=172}}</ref><ref name="Donovan2011b">{{cite book|last=Donovan|first=Barna William|title=Conspiracy Films: A Tour of Dark Places in the American Conscious|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bJkhqU1IXHAC&pg=PA107|access-date=17 September 2014|date=2011-07-20|publisher=McFarland|isbn=9780786486151|pages=107–|archive-date=2016-10-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161005205106/https://books.google.com/books?id=bJkhqU1IXHAC&pg=PA107|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://vault.fbi.gov/Majestic%2012/Majestic%2012%20Part%201%20of%201/at_download/file |title=FBI – Majestic 12 Part 1 of 1 |work=An FBI archive containing details of "Majestic 12" |access-date=April 10, 2011 |archive-date=January 31, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210131044307/https://vault.fbi.gov/Majestic%2012/Majestic%2012%20Part%201%20of%201/at_download/file |url-status=live }}</ref> After researchers noted many style and formatting errors, Moore admitted that he had typed and stamped the document as a facsimile.<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|259}}

At a 1989 [[Mutual UFO Network]] conference, Moore confessed that he had intentionally fed fake evidence of extraterrestrials to UFO researchers, including Bennewitz.<ref name="Gulyas2016"/> Roswell conspiracy proponents turned on Moore, but not the broader conspiracy theory.<ref>{{harvnb|Goldberg|2001|pp=207, 214}}</ref> Doty would later admit he had spread fabricated documents to UFO researchers in the 1980s.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Kloor |first=Keith |author-link=Keith Kloor |date=2019 |title=UFOs Won't Go Away |journal=Issues in Science and Technology |volume=35 |issue=3 |pages=39–56 |jstor=26949023}}</ref>{{rp|53}}<!--==== George C. Andrews====
In 1986, conspiracy theorist George C. Andrews authored ''Extra-Terrestrials Among Us'', accusing the CIA of the Kennedy assassination.<ref name="Barkun2006"/>{{rp|87–99,137–38,147}} Scholar of extremism  [[Michael Barkun]] notes that "Andrew's political views are almost indistinguishable from those associated with militias, only his placement of extraterrestrials at the pinnacle of conspiracies identifies him as a ufologist."  <ref name="Barkun2006"/>  According to Barkun,  "the publication of ''Extra-Terrestrials Among Us'' marked the beginning of a feverish period of UFO conspiracism, from 1986 to 1989.<ref name="Barkun2006"/>{{rp|32}} <!--  In 1987, UFO conspiracy theorist [[Bill Moore (ufologist)|William Moore]] authored "The Strange Case of the Maury Island Saucer", allegedly linking the [[Maury Island UFO incident]] to the [[trial of Clay Shaw]] for the Kennedy assassination.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ttPWAAAAMAAJ|title=The UFO Literature: A Comprehensive Annotated Bibliography of Works in English|first=Richard Michael|last=Rasmussen|date=December 10, 1985|publisher=McFarland|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dmIDwgEACAAJ|title=The Strange Case of the Maury Island Saucer|first=William L.|last=Moore|date=December 6, 1987|publisher=W.L. Moore Publications, 4219 W. Olive, Suite 247|via=Google Books}}</ref> JFK-UFO conspiracy theories first emerged in the writings of the UFO conspiracy community.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/5339405/|title=8 Jul 1976, Page 31 - Lebanon Daily News at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/735923936/|title=5 Mar 1978, 10 - The News Tribune at Newspapers.com|website=Newspapers.com}}</ref>-->

====Lear promotes Bill Cooper and Bob Lazar====
In the Summer of 1988,  [[Milton William Cooper|Bill Cooper]] made his first public comments on the ParaNet [[Bulletin Board System]], an early UFO message board, claiming that in 1966 he was serving aboard the ''[[USS Tiru]]'' when he and fellow Navy personnel witnessed a metal craft "larger than a football field" repeatedly enter and exit the water.<ref name="PaleHorseRider"/>{{rp|72–75}} Cooper claimed he was instructed by superiors to never speak about the incident.<ref name="PaleHorseRider"/>{{rp|72–75}}

Biographer Mark Jacobson argues "the Tiru incident itself would not have done much to make Cooper's name in ufology. That opportunity came only a few days later" when he was contacted by fellow ParaNet poster [[John Olsen Lear|John Lear]]. Lear, the son of Learjet founder [[Bill Lear]], identified as a pilot who had flown missions for the CIA.<ref name="PaleHorseRider"/>{{rp|ch 7}} On August 25, 1988, Lear authored a post titled "The UFO Coverup" which incorporated [[Dulce Base|elements of mythos]] from [[Paul Bennewitz]], a ufologist who was later revealed to have been fed disinformation by American counter-intelligence agent [[Richard C. Doty]].<ref name="PaleHorseRider"/>{{rp|ch 7}}<ref name="MirageMen"/> Cooper soon visited Lear, and the two spent much time together from 1988 to 1990.<ref name="PaleHorseRider"/>{{rp|ch 7}}

Cooper's views were heavily influenced by Lear and his story of alien collusion with secret governmental forces.<ref name="Pioneer">{{Cite magazine|url=https://newrepublic.com/article/150922/pioneer-paranoia|title = A Pioneer of Paranoia|magazine = The New Republic|date = August 28, 2018|last1 = Dickey|first1 = Colin}}</ref> In 1989, the two released an "indictment" against the US Government for "aiding and abetting and concealing this Alien Nation which exists in our borders".<ref name="Pioneer"/>    In 2018, columnist [[Colin Dickey]] noted Lear and Cooper's influence, writing "in the early years [UFO writers] did not, by and large, embrace strong political positions. They were the tip of a spear asserting that the number one thing we had to fear was not little green men, but the government that colluded with them, appropriating their technology against us."<ref name="Pioneer"/>

Cooper and Lear's collaboration lasted until the 1989 MUFON conference where Bill Moore admitted to spreading lies to UFO researchers. In response, Cooper accused Lear of being a CIA plant.<ref name="Pioneer"/>
[[File:John Hamilton Mortimer - Death on a Pale Horse - Google Art Project (cropped).jpg|thumb|right|"Death on a Pale Horse", an apocalyptic image from the [[Book of Revelation]], as depicted by 18th-century artist [[John Hamilton Mortimer]]]]
In 1991, Cooper published the influential conspiracy work ''Behold a Pale Horse'' which claimed that Kennedy was killed after he "informed [[Majestic 12]] that he intended to reveal the presence of aliens to the American people".<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z8e5YELGGFAC|title=Enemies Within: The Culture of Conspiracy in Modern America|first=Robert Alan|last=Goldberg|date=October 1, 2008|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0300132946|via=Google Books|access-date=December 13, 2021|archive-date=December 9, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211209063741/https://books.google.com/books?id=Z8e5YELGGFAC|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="PaleHorseRider"/> ''Behold a Pale Horse'' became 'wildly popular' with conspiracy theorists and went on to be one of the most-read books in the US prison system.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/02/books/pale-horse-rider-william-cooper-mark-jacobson-interview.html|title=Tell Us 5 Things About Your Book: A Godfather of Conspiracy Thinking|first=John|last=Williams|newspaper=The New York Times|date=September 2, 2018|access-date=December 13, 2021|archive-date=December 10, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211210013841/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/02/books/pale-horse-rider-william-cooper-mark-jacobson-interview.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="PaleHorseRider"/>

Cooper described the "Illuminati" as a secret international organization, controlled by the [[Bilderberg Group]], that conspired with the [[Knights of Columbus]], [[Freemasonry|Masons]], [[Skull and Bones]], and other organizations. Its ultimate goal, he said, was the establishment of a [[New World Order (conspiracy theory)|New World Order]]. According to Cooper, the Illuminati conspirators not only invented alien threats for their own gain, but actively conspired with extraterrestrials to take over the world.<ref name="Barkun2006" />{{rp|60}} Cooper produced regular shortwave-radio broadcasts that were popular with conspiracy theorist and anti-government activists. Cooper reportedly met with [[Timothy McVeigh]] shortly before the [[Oklahoma City bombing]].<ref name="Barkun2006" />{{rp|ix}} In November 2001,  Cooper was shot and killed by law enforcement during an attempted arrest.<ref name="Barkun2006" />{{rp|165}}

[[File:BobLazarTheLazarTapeAndExcerptsFromTheGovernmentBible000.png|thumb|right|Bob Lazar in 1991]]
Lear introduced journalist [[George Knapp (television journalist)|George Knapp]] to UFO whistle-blower [[Bob Lazar]] and his tales of [[Area 51]].<ref name="8news">{{Cite web|url=https://www.8newsnow.com/news/local-news/ufo-activist-nevada-aviator-john-lear-dies/|title=UFO activist, Nevada aviator John Lear dies at 79|work=KLAS |date=31 March 2022|access-date=31 March 2022|archive-date=31 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220331210308/https://www.8newsnow.com/news/local-news/ufo-activist-nevada-aviator-john-lear-dies/|url-status=live}}</ref> In November 1989, Bob Lazar appeared in a special interview with Knapp on Las Vegas TV station KLAS to discuss his alleged employment at S-4.<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|274}}<ref>[http://www.8newsnow.com/story/3369879/bob-lazar-the-man-behind-area-51 KLAS-TV: 8 News Now: George Knapp, Investigative Reporter: "Bob Lazar The Man Behind Area 51: NEW: Area 51 Exposed] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150223132918/http://www.8newsnow.com/story/3369879/bob-lazar-the-man-behind-area-51 |date=2015-02-23 }} retrieved 21 March 2013</ref>

Lazar's claims were widely discredited. Lazar never obtained the degrees he claims to hold from MIT and Caltech.<ref>''[[Los Angeles Times]]'': May 6, 1993, [[Ray Rivenberg|Rivenberg, Ray]], "Unusually Fanatical Observers Ike Struck Deal With Aliens!"</ref><ref>{{usurped|[https://web.archive.org/web/20130111183913/http://www.presidentialufo.com/articles-a-papers/379-the-true-story-of-area-51-a-look-at-the-actual-evidence The Presidents UFO Website: ''The True Story of Area 51: A Look at the Actual Evidence'']}}, Written by [[Grant Cameron]], Monday, 03 October 2011 18:29 retrieved 21 March 2013</ref> In 1990, Lazar was arrested for aiding and abetting a [[prostitution]] ring. This was reduced to felony [[Procuring (prostitution)|pandering]], to which he pleaded guilty.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-05-06-vw-31950-story.html |title=Unusually Fanatical Observers |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=February 4, 2003}}</ref><ref name="lvrgui">{{cite news|date=June 19, 1990|title=Source In Channel 8'S UFO Series Pleads Guilty to Pandering Charge|page=8b|work=[[Las Vegas Review-Journal]]}}</ref><ref name=lvrpro>{{cite news |title=Judge Gives UFO 'Witness' Lazar Probation on pandering charge |work=Las Vegas Review-Journal |date=August 21, 1990 |page=2c}}</ref> By 1991, Nevada press reported tourists traveling to the Groom Lake region in hopes of glimpsing UFOs.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/176156578|title=Los Angeles Times 20 Mar 1991, page Page 49|website=Newspapers.com}}</ref>

Lear remained a prominent voice in the UFO conspiracy theory community until his death in 2022, making multiple appearances on TV and online shows, including [[Coast to Coast AM]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.coasttocoastam.com/guest/lear-john-6252/|title=John Lear|website=Coast to Coast AM|access-date=2022-03-31|archive-date=2022-03-31|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220331171836/https://www.coasttocoastam.com/guest/lear-john-6252/|url-status=live}}</ref> Lazar continues to spread tales of Area 51 through media appearance. In 2018, he was  featured in producer George Knapp and [[Jeremy Corbell]]'s documentary ''Bob Lazar: Area 51 & Flying Saucers''<ref name="DFP">{{cite web|last1=Reimink|first1=Troy|title=In 'Bob Lazar: Area 51' documentary, director investigates UFO whistle-blower's story|url=https://www.freep.com/story/entertainment/movies/2019/04/10/bob-lazar-area-51-documentary-ufo-freep-film-festival/3419204002/|access-date=July 31, 2019|newspaper=[[Detroit Free Press]]}}</ref> and [[Joe Rogan]]'s [[The Joe Rogan Experience|podcast]].<ref name="vice_BobL">{{cite web |title=Bob Lazar Says the FBI Raided Him to Seize Area 51's Alien Fuel. The Truth Is Weirder |last=McMillan |first=Tim |work=[[Vice (magazine)|Vice]] |date=November 13, 2019 |access-date=March 1, 2025 |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/bob-lazar-says-the-fbi-raided-him-to-seize-area-51s-alien-fuel-the-truth-is-weirder/}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Seddon|first=Dan|date=July 19, 2019|title=Area 51 details left out of Netflix's Bob Lazar documentary|url=https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/a28443500/bob-lazar-area-51-netflix-flying-saucers/|access-date=2020-08-07|website=Digital Spy|language=en-GB}}</ref><ref name="roll_Lovi">{{Cite magazine| title = Loving the Alien| last = Rodrick | first = Stephen| magazine = Rolling Stone| date = 2020-08-20| access-date = August 28, 2020| url = https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/aliens-real-ufo-area-51-nevada-pentagon-history-1046067/}}</ref><!--====Phil Schneider and Dulce Base====
In 1995, a man calling himself Philip Schneider made a few appearances at UFO conventions, espousing essentially a new version of the theories mentioned above. Schneider claimed to be the son of U-boat commander who was captured by the allies and switched sides. According to Schneider, his father has been part of the Philadelphia Experiment. Schneider claimed to have played a role in the construction of Deep Underground Military Bases (DUMBs) across the United States, and as a result he said that he had been exposed to classified information of various sorts as well as having personal experiences with EBEs. He claimed to have survived the [[Dulce Base]] catastrophe and decided to tell his tale.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Phil Schneider Story|url=http://www.apfn.org/apfn/phil.htm|publisher=APFN|access-date=26 April 2013|archive-date=27 April 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130427122518/http://www.apfn.org/apfn/PHIL.HTM|url-status=dead}}</ref>

According to folklore,{{better source needed|date=January 2022}} Schneider died on January 17, 1996, in a death ruled a suicide, though some of his followers reportedly believed he may have been murdered.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.apfn.org/apfn/ex_wifephil.htm|title=Message from ex-wife of Phil Schneider|website=www.apfn.org|access-date=2017-12-16|archive-date=2017-12-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201062222/http://www.apfn.org/apfn/ex_wifephil.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=January 2022}}
-->

====Doty spreads "Project Serpo" stories====
In 2005, UFO researcher Victor Martinez received an anonymous email about Project Serpo, a supposed "exchange program" where Americans were sent to live on an alien homeworld.<ref name="MirageMen"/>{{rp|x|quote=So began the email received on 1 November 2005 by Victor Martinez, a substitute teacher on America’s west coast who ran what must have been one of the most remarkable email groups on the Internet." }}   The anonymous informant and three other supposed-corroborating witnesses were revealed to be accounts operated by Rick Doty.<ref name="MirageMen"/>{{rp|x|quote=After engaging in some online cloak-and-dagger work, Broadbent found that the original Anonymous emails distributed to Victor Martinez’s email list in November 2005, and the corroborating emails sent by Rick Doty, Paul McGovern and at least two other alleged Defence Intelligence Agency ‘insiders’, all shared the same consumer broadband IP address – which identifies the local computer network that a computer is using – based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This fingered Rick, the only member of the group known actually to exist outside of cyberspace, as the probable sender of the original emails, if not the source of the Serpo material itself.}} He participated in the 2013 documentary ''[[Mirage Men]]'' about his campaign against Bennewitz, Howe, and others.

Doty continues to spread UFO stories, appearing in conferences, films, and the [[UFO (American TV series)|2021 TV series ''UFO'']].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/aug/17/ufo-jj-abrams-docseries-showtime | title='Our fascination is rooted in hope': Why we're so obsessed with UFOs | work=The Guardian | date=17 August 2021 | last1=Esposito | first1=Veronica }}</ref>

===Conspiracies conquer 90s media===
[[File:Cattle abduction novelty lamp.jpg|thumb|upright=.7|A novelty lamp depicting gray aliens in a flying saucer abducting a cow]]
The 1990s saw as proliferation of conspiracy media along with the rise of internet culture. Images of a gray alien were called the "[[Smiley|smiley face]]" of the 1990s.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z8e5YELGGFAC&pg=PA223 | title=Enemies within: The Culture of Conspiracy in Modern America | isbn=978-0-300-13294-6 | last1=Goldberg | first1=Robert Alan | date=October 2008 | publisher=Yale University Press }}</ref>  The 1991 film [[JFK (film)|''JFK'']] popularized Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories, specifically the writings of [[Jim Marrs]]. By 1997, Marrs was arguing that Kennedy's murder was connected to a UFO conspiracy.<ref name="Barkun2006"/>{{rp|147}}  In the [[Sneakers (1992 film)|1992 comedy ''Sneakers'']], Dan Ackroyd plays a conspiracy theorist convinced that Eisenhower made a treaty with space aliens to permit cattle mutilations.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n5vZPQAACAAJ | title=Sneakers: The Screenplay | isbn=978-1-59300-130-8 | last1=Robinson | first1=Phil Alden | last2=Lasker | first2=Lawrence | date=March 2003 | publisher=Harvest Moon }}</ref>{{rp|x}} <ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u-bzEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT805 | title=Movies and Mental Illness: Using Films to Understand Psychopathology | isbn=978-1-61334-553-5 | last1=Wedding | first1=Danny | date=6 November 2023 | publisher=Hogrefe }}</ref>{{rp|805}}<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-oklahoman-sneakers/165275525/ | title=Sneakers | work=The Daily Oklahoman | date=11 September 1992 | page=42 }}</ref>

In September 1993, ''The X-Files'' premiered focused on UFO conspiracy theories. Barkun observes that the show's oft-repeated mantra "Trust No One" serves to "neatly encapsulate the conspiracist's limitless suspicions",<ref name="Barkun2006"/>{{rp|2|quote=“Trust no one” was one of the mantras repeated on The X-Files, and it neatly encapsulates the conspiracist’s limitless suspicions. Its association with a popular end-of-the-millennium television program is a measure of how prevalent conspiracy thinking has become."}} while Gulyas describes the series as "an exemplar of paranoid television, embracing the
mounting paranoia and tensions of the 1990s".<ref name="Gulyas2015"/>{{rp|xii}}

''The X-Files'' incorporated elements of UFO conspiracy theories, including a shadowy cabal of conspirators, a Roswell coverup, Men in Black, and a 'treaty' allowing alien abduction. In the episode “[[Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man]]”, the series antagonist is revealed to have been responsible for assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King.<ref name="Gulyas2015"/>{{rp|89-90|quote="the Smoking Man is portrayed in being involved in CIA operations in the Belgian Congo and, unsurprisingly, the assassination of John F. Kennedy. ... The Smoking Man goes on to assassinate Martin Luther King Jr. five years later, after convincing J. Edgar Hoover and other authorities that King’s increasing references to Marxism and revolution made him a threat."}}<ref name="MirageMen"/>{{rp|x|quote="There have been numerous Cooper sightings in The X-File projects over the years. In one of the program’s most famous episodes, “The Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man” (season 4, episode 7), the unnamed MJ-12–like operative known as the Cigarette Smoking Man assassinates President Kennedy, shooting him from a storm-drain opening. It wasn’t William Greer with a shellfish-toxin gun, but the motive was the same: Kennedy had to be killed before he blew the lid off the alien secret."}}  The [[The X-Files (film)|1998 X-Files film]] explicitly homaged Bill Cooper, with on-screen characters talking about "Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars"—an influential chapter title from Cooper's book.<ref name="MirageMen"/>{{rp|x|quote="In The X-Files: Fight the Future, a movie written by Carter, the Cooper references are more specific. At one point, a character played by Martin Landau alludes to “Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars,” the title of the most influential chapter in Behold a Pale Horse. There is a scene in which Agent Scully is stung by an infected bee. Agent Mulder calls for an ambulance, but when it arrives, the driver is not a medic but an assassin, shooting Mulder. When the ambulance pulls away, Cooper is spelled out on the back."}}

The success of ''The X-Files'' inspired similar works. The 1994 made-for-TV movie ''[[Roswell (film)|Roswell]]'', broadcast on the Showtime Network, dramatized tales of a UFO crash and coverup. The 1996 blockbuster ''[[Independence Day (1996 film)|Independence Day]]'' introduced a global audience to the idea of a recovered Roswell craft being secretly studied at Area 51. Episodes of the 1996 show ''Dark Skies'' featured the tagline "History as we know it is a lie".  The show provided an alternative history that "wove nearly every significant historical event of the past fifty years into a paranoid vision of extraterrestrial infiltration."<ref name="Gulyas2015"/>{{rp|ch. 4}} 

The following year,  ''[[Men in Black (1997 film)|Men in Black]]'' re-cast the supposed secret agents as comic heroes rather than sinister villains.<ref name="Donovan2011"/>{{rp|179}} While prior conspiracy films had taken the perspective of conspiracy theorists, ''Men in Black'' took the perspective of the conspirators. The film was the first time 'Men in Black" appeared in a major movie, cementing the men in black in popular culture.<ref name="auto">Mirage Men, Ch 11, p. 87-88</ref>
The film 'poked fun' at government debunking, with one of the Men in Black telling a witness "The flash of light you saw was not a UFO, [[Michigan "swamp gas" UFO reports|swamp gas]] from a [[Roswell incident|weather balloon]] was trapped in a [[1952 Washington, D.C. UFO incident|thermal pocket]] and reflected the [[Mantell UFO incident|light from Venus]]" -- a combination of 'official explanations' the Air Force has offered for UFO reports.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fPfADwAAQBAJ&pg=PA54|title=Religion, Supernaturalism, the Paranormal and Pseudoscience: An Anthropological Critique|first=Homayun|last=Sidky|date=November 30, 2019|publisher=Anthem Press|isbn=978-1-78527-163-2 |via=Google Books}}</ref>

===="Alien Autopsy" hoax====

[[Alien Autopsy (1995 film)|Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction]] is a 1995 [[pseudo-documentary]] containing grainy black and white footage of a hoaxed alien [[autopsy]].<ref name="Gulyas2015"/>{{rp|93}} <ref>{{harvnb|Goldberg|2001|p=219}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Korff|1997|pp=203–217}}</ref> In 1995, film purporting to show an alien autopsy conducted shortly after the Roswell incident was released by British entrepreneur [[Ray Santilli]].<ref name="Frank2023p1101">{{cite book |last=Frank |first=Adam |title=The Little Book of Aliens |date=2023 |publisher=Harper |isbn=978-0-06-327977-3 |edition=ebook |location=New York}}</ref>{{rp|1101}} The footage aired on television networks around the world.<ref name="saf">{{Scientific American Frontiers |8 |2}}</ref> The program was an overnight sensation,<ref name="Jose1">{{cite book |last1=Levy |first1=Michael M |author-link=Michael M. Levy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lvaKDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA32 |title=Aliens in Popular Culture |last2=Mendlesohn |first2=Farah |date=2019 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1-4408-3833-0 |location=Santa Barbara, California}}</ref>{{rp|32}} with ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine declaring that the film had sparked a debate "with an intensity not lavished on any home movie since the [[Zapruder film]]".<ref name=Time>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,983764-1,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091216074850/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,983764-1,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 16, 2009 |title=Autopsy or Fraud-topsy? |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |author=Corliss, Richard |author-link=Corliss, Richard |date=November 27, 1995 |access-date=April 23, 2010}}</ref>

The program was thoroughly debunked. The autopsy footage was filmed on an inexpensive set constructed in a London living room. Its alien bodies were hollow plaster casts filled with [[offal]], sheep brains, and raspberry jam.<ref>{{harvnb|Frank|2023|p=1109}}</ref> Multiple participants in ''Alien Autopsy'' stated that misleading editing had removed their opinions that the footage was a hoax.<ref name="Time"/><ref name="Jose1" /> Santilli admitted in 2006 that the film was a fake.<ref name="Jose1" />

====David Icke and reptilians====
{{main|David Icke}}
{{anchor|Branton Files}}
The Branton Files are a series of documents espousing various conspiracy theories circulated on the [[internet]] since at least the mid-1990s. They are most often attributed to Bruce Alan Walton who claims to have been a victim of [[alien abduction]] and had contact through "altered states of consciousness" with humans "living in the inner earth". The files have been characterized as "high fantasy" filled with "complex and convoluted conspiracism".<ref name="Barkun2006"/>{{rp|123}}<ref name="Gulyas2016">{{cite book|author=Aaron John Gulyas|title=Conspiracy Theories: The Roots, Themes and Propagation of Paranoid Political and Cultural Narratives|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=afcEDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA173|date=25 January 2016|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-7864-9726-3|pages=173–}}</ref><!--<ref name="Robertson2016145">{{cite book|author=David G. Robertson|title=UFOs, Conspiracy Theories and the New Age: Millennial Conspiracism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4ngwCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT145|date=25 February 2016|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=978-1-4742-5322-2|pages=145–}}</ref>-->  The content influenced David Icke.<ref name="Barkun2006"/>{{rp|123–124}}

In the 1990s, author David Icke proposed that world elites are actually "reptilian" aliens.<ref name="Barkun2006"/>{{rp|68|quote="British author David Icke (discussed in detail in chapter 6), who commands significant New Age and right-wing audiences, manages to construct a conspiracy whose categories include mind manipulation, tax-exempt foundations, elite military, the drugs and arms trades, religion, and politics—dragging in,
along with the Bilderbergers, Illuminati, and other standard players, the Vatican, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, capitalism, fascism, communism, and Zionism, among others.}}   Scholars note that the  [[V (franchise)|science-fiction franchise ''V'']] had told a similar story from 1983 to 1984.<ref name="Gulyas2015"/>{{rp|30|quote="Shows such as V would occasionally, especially during the 1990s, serve as fodder for conspiracy theorists. David Icke, a British conspiracy theorist and New Age guru, asserts that the ruling figures of human societies are, in fact, shape-shifting reptilians."}}

====Phoenix Lights and Heaven's Gate====
{{main|Phoenix Lights}}
[[File:Phoenix Lights triangle.svg|thumb|right|A drawing of the Phoenix Lights]] 
On March 13, 1997, there were widespread reports of unidentified lights over Nevada and Arizona. Days later, 39 members of UFO group Heaven's Gate were found dead in a mass suicide.

Arizona Governor [[Fife Symington III]] held a [[press conference]], joking that "they found who was responsible" and revealing an aide dressed in an alien costume. Later, in 2007, Symington reportedly told a UFO investigator he'd had a personal close encounter with an alien spacecraft but remained silent "because he didn't want to panic the populace". According to Symington, "I'm a pilot and I know just about every machine that flies. It was bigger than anything that I've ever seen. It remains a great mystery. Other people saw it, responsible people... I don't know why people would ridicule it".<ref name="Beal">{{cite web |last1=Beal |first1=Tom |title=UFOs flew over Phoenix in '97, Symington says |url=https://tucson.com/news/state-and-regional/ufos-flew-over-phoenix-in-97-symington-says/article_9b90333a-4280-5288-9f4b-f1034df5d833.html |website=tucson.com |date=23 March 2007 |publisher=Arizona Daily Star |access-date=28 October 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |first=Jon |last=Shanks |title=National Ledger – Former Arizona Gov. Admits UFO Sighting On Night of Phoenix Lights |url=http://www.nationalledger.com/artman/publish/article_272612175.shtml |date=March 18, 2007 |access-date=2007-03-19 |archive-date=2007-03-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070320204243/http://www.nationalledger.com/artman/publish/article_272612175.shtml |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |first=Steve |last=Hammons |title=Former Arizona governor says he saw 'Phoenix Lights' UFO |url=http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=22360 |publisher=American Chronicle |date=March 18, 2007 |access-date=2007-03-19 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120721004535/http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/22360 |archive-date=July 21, 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last =Cooper |first =Anderson |author-link =Anderson Cooper |title=Anderson Cooper 360° Blog |publisher =CNN|date =March 21, 2007| url=http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/anderson.cooper.360/blog/2007/03/former-governor-says-he-saw-ufo.html
| access-date =2007-03-22}}</ref>

===21st century===
<!--
In 2000, [[Die Glocke (conspiracy theory)|Die Glocke]] ('the bell') was described by Igor Witkowski as a Nazi wonderweapon.   
2003 saw the publication of ''Alien Encounters'' ({{ISBN|1-57821-205-7}}), by [[Chuck Missler]] and Mark Eastman, which primarily re-stated the notions presented above (especially Cooper's) and presents them as fact. {{citation needed|date=December 2021}}

====MoD secret files====
Eight files from 1978 to 1987 on UFO sightings were first released on May 14, 2008, to the National Archives' website by the British Ministry of Defence. Two hundred files were set to be made public by 2012. The files are correspondence from the public sent to government officials, such as the MoD and [[Margaret Thatcher]]. The information can be downloaded.<ref>[http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ufos UFO files from The National Archives bot-generated title ] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080728231520/http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ufos/ |date=2008-07-28 }} at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk</ref> Copies of Lt. Col. Halt's letter regarding the sighting at RAF Woodbridge (see above{{where|date=October 2016}}) to the U.K. Ministry of Defence were routinely released (without additional comment) by the USA's base public affairs staff throughout the 1980s until the base closed. The MoD released the files due to requests under the [[Freedom of Information Act 2000|Freedom of Information Act]].<ref>{{cite news
|title=Files released on UFO sightings
|date=2008-05-14
|work=[[BBC News]]
|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7398108.stm
|access-date=2008-08-05
|archive-date=2008-07-20
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080720115509/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7398108.stm
|url-status=live
}}</ref> The files included reports of "lights in the sky" from Britons.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5j0OnawpQKsmDXbJAce-OI5EiUgHQ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130605221509/http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5j0OnawpQKsmDXbJAce-OI5EiUgHQ |url-status=dead |title=The truth is out there: Britons 'spotted' UFOs, records say|archive-date=June 5, 2013|agency=Agence France-Presse}}</ref>

====Disclosure====
In the early 2000s, the concept of "disclosure" became increasingly popular in the UFO conspiracy community: that the government had classified and withheld information on alien contact and full disclosure was needed, and was pursued by activist lobbying groups.

In 1993, [[Steven M. Greer]] founded the Disclosure Project to promote the concept. In May 2001, Greer held a press conference at the [[National Press Club (United States)|National Press Club]] in [[Washington, D.C.]] that demanded Congress hold hearings on "secret U.S. involvement with UFOs and extraterrestrials".<ref name="washtimes">{{cite news |title=Government is covering up UFO evidence, group says |first=Julia |last=Duin |url=http://www.washtimes.com/national/20010510-19816390.htm |newspaper=[[The Washington Times]] |date=11 May 2001 |access-date=8 March 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010516132431/http://www.washtimes.com/national/20010510-19816390.htm |archive-date=May 16, 2001 }}</ref><ref name="Daily Record">{{cite news |title=They're Here; UFO watchers to reveal proof that aliens have visited Earth |newspaper=The Daily Record |date=May 9, 2001 |url=https://www.questia.com/read/1G1-74321804 |access-date=January 7, 2019 |archive-date=July 23, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200723225147/https://www.questia.com/read/1G1-74321804/they-re-here-ufo-watchers-to-reveal-proof-that-aliens |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="abcnews">{{cite news
|title = Group Calls for Disclosure of UFO Info |author = Katelynn Raymer |author2 = David Ruppe |url = https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=98572 |newspaper = [[ABC News (United States)|ABC News]] |date = 10 May 2001 |access-date = 11 March 2013 |archive-date = 28 July 2013 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130728235120/http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=98572 |url-status = live}}</ref> It was described by an attending BBC reporter as "the strangest ever news conference hosted by Washington's august National Press Club".<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1322432.stm |title=UFO spotters slam 'US cover-up' |work=[[BBC News]] |date=May 10, 2001 |access-date=May 11, 2016 |archive-date=July 23, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190723074515/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1322432.stm |url-status=live}}</ref> The Disclosure Project's claims were met with by derision by [[skepticism|skeptics]] and spokespeople for the [[United States Air Force]].<ref>{{cite web |last =Kehnemui |first =Sharon |title =Men in Suits See Aliens as Part of Solution, Not Problem |work =[[Fox News]] |date =May 10, 2001 |url =https://www.foxnews.com/story/men-in-suits-see-aliens-as-part-of-solution-not-problem |access-date =2007-05-10 |archive-date =2013-08-25 |archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20130825092411/http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,24364,00.html |url-status =live }}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |last =McCullagh |first =Declan |author-link =Declan McCullagh |title =Ooo-WEE-ooo Fans Come to D.C. |magazine =Wired News |date =May 10, 2001 |url =http://archive.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2001/05/43526 |access-date =11 May 2016 |archive-date =3 June 2016 |archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20160603065714/http://archive.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2001/05/43526 |url-status =live }}</ref>

In 2013, the production company CHD2, LLC<ref>{{cite news |title=The Citizen Hearing on Disclosure |url=http://www.citizenhearing.org/about-Chad |website=Official Citizen Hearing on Disclosure website |access-date=2017-05-11 |archive-date=2017-05-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170515211941/http://www.citizenhearing.org/about-chd/ |url-status=live}}</ref> held a "Citizen Hearing on Disclosure" at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. from 29 April to 3 May 2013. The group paid former U.S. Senator [[Mike Gravel]] and former Representatives [[Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick]], [[Roscoe Bartlett]], [[Merrill Cook]], [[Darlene Hooley]], and [[Lynn Woolsey]] $20,000 each to participate, and to preside over panels of academics and former government and military officials discussing UFOs and extraterrestrials.<ref>{{cite news |title=Visitors From Outer Space, Real or Not, Are Focus of Discussion in Washington |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/04/us/politics/panel-convenes-in-washington-to-discuss-aliens.html |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=May 3, 2013 |access-date=September 17, 2017 |archive-date=August 20, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170820192655/http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/04/us/politics/panel-convenes-in-washington-to-discuss-aliens.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

Other such groups include [[Citizens Against UFO Secrecy]], founded in 1977.

The name of the German website [[Disclose.tv]], which was initially a conspiracy forum focused on UFOs, ghosts and paranormal phenomena, references the concept.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last1=Thomas |first1=W. F. |date=12 January 2022 |title=Disclose.tv: Conspiracy Forum Turned Disinformation Factory |url=https://www.logically.ai/articles/disclose.tv-conspiracy-forum-turned-disinformation-factory |access-date=2022-10-26 |website=[[Logically (company)|Logically]] |language=en |quote=The name "Disclose" references the concept within UFO enthusiast circles of "disclosure," the time when the government will confirm the existence of aliens and release information regarding them.}}</ref>
-->

In the early 2000s, the concept of "disclosure" became increasingly popular in the UFO conspiracy community: that the government had classified and withheld information on alien contact and full disclosure was needed, and was pursued by activist lobbying groups. In 1993, [[Steven M. Greer]] founded the Disclosure Project to promote the concept. In May 2001, Greer held a press conference at the [[National Press Club (United States)|National Press Club]] in [[Washington, D.C.]] that demanded Congress hold hearings on "secret U.S. involvement with UFOs and extraterrestrials".<ref name="Levine Spectator Jul 2023" /> Disclosure Project's claims were met with by derision by [[skepticism|skeptics]] and spokespeople for the [[United States Air Force]].<ref>{{cite magazine |last =McCullagh |first =Declan |author-link =Declan McCullagh |title =Ooo-WEE-ooo Fans Come to D.C. |magazine =Wired News |date =May 10, 2001 |url =http://archive.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2001/05/43526 |access-date =11 May 2016 |archive-date =3 June 2016 |archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20160603065714/http://archive.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2001/05/43526 |url-status =live }}</ref> According to religious scholar Joseph Laycock, the idea behind "disclosure" predates modern UFO culture: in 1946, the editor of [[Amazing Stories]] magazine wrote, “If you think responsible parties in world governments are ignorant of the fact of space ships visiting Earth, you just don’t think the way we do”.<ref name="Laycock">{{cite web |last1=Laycock |first1=Joseph |title=Amid Anticipation of Government Disclosure, 'We Are Not Alone' Follows Those Who Claim Alien Contact Through Meditation |url=https://religiondispatches.org/with-increase-in-government-inquiry-we-are-not-alone-follows-those-who-claim-alien-contact-through-meditation/ |website=religiondispatches.org |date=25 January 2024 |publisher=Religion Dispatches |access-date=6 February 2025}}</ref>
[[File:Luis Elizondo.jpg|thumb|right|Luis Elizondo]]
In December 2017, ''The New York Times'' published a story about the [[Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program]], a  Defense Intelligence Agency program to study "unidentified aerial phenomenon"<ref name="NYT-20171216">{{cite news |last1=Cooper |first1=Helene |last2=Blumenthal |first2=Ralph |last3=Kean |first3=Leslie |title=Glowing Auras and 'Black Money': The Pentagon's Mysterious U.F.O. Program |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/us/politics/pentagon-program-ufo-harry-reid.html |date=December 16, 2017 |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=December 16, 2017}}</ref> The program's director, [[Luis Elizondo]] claimed there is a government conspiracy to suppress evidence that UFOs are of "non-human" origin.<ref name="politico">{{cite web |last=Bender |first=Bryan |title=The Pentagon's Secret Search for UFOs |url=https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/12/16/pentagon-ufo-search-harry-reid-216111 |date=December 16, 2017 |work=[[Politico]] |access-date=December 17, 2017}}</ref><ref name="Burton GQ Nov 2021">{{Cite magazine |last=Burton |first=Charlie |date=November 9, 2021 |title=This man ran the Pentagon's secretive UFO programme for a decade. We had some questions |url=https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/politics/article/luis-elizondo-interview-2021 |magazine=GQ |language=en-GB |access-date=November 13, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211109143249/https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/politics/article/luis-elizondo-interview-2021|archive-date=2021-11-09}}</ref><ref name="Levine Spectator Jul 2023">{{Cite magazine|date=2023-07-20 |first=Art|last=Levine|title=Spaceship of Fools |url=https://washingtonspectator.org/spaceship-of-fools/ |access-date=2023-07-21 |magazine=[[The Washington Spectator]] |language=en-US|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230721001904/https://washingtonspectator.org/spaceship-of-fools/|archive-date=2023-07-21}}</ref>

U.S. news media and Congressional leadership were criticized for giving credibility to unverified stories of alien visitations and government cover ups. Some commentators expressed concerns about "UFO cults and cult-like behavior, violence and cyber-stalking by UFO zealots".<ref name="Levine Spectator Jul 2023" /> Astronomers, science writers and other experts observed that the increase in media publicity and government interest contrasted with "the widely held sentiment among scientists that, for decades, the media has lavished too much attention on sensational claims that vague lights in the sky are actually extraterrestrial spacecraft". Despite pressure by "disclosure" advocates fueled by anecdotes and hearsay of a government cover up, skeptical investigator [[Robert Sheaffer]] said "there is not going to be any "big reveal".<ref name="SciAm2">{{cite web |last1=David |first1=Leonard |title=Experts Weigh In on Pentagon UFO Report |url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/experts-weigh-in-on-pentagon-ufo-report/ |website=scientificamerican.com |date=August 2021 |publisher=Scientific American |access-date=14 February 2025}}</ref>

In June 2020, [[Donald Trump]], when asked if he would consider releasing more information about the Roswell incident, said, "I won't talk to you about what I know about it, but it's very interesting."<ref>{{cite web |last=Madhani |first=Aamer |date=June 19, 2020 |title=Trump Says He's Heard 'Interesting' Things About Roswell |url=https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2020/06/19/trump-says-hes-heard-interesting-things-about-roswell/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210428140627/https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2020/06/19/trump-says-hes-heard-interesting-things-about-roswell/ |archive-date=April 28, 2021 |access-date=April 28, 2021 |website=Military Times}}</ref> In December 2020, former president Obama joked with [[Stephen Colbert]], "It used to be that UFOs and Roswell was the biggest conspiracy. And now that seems so tame, the idea that the government might have an alien spaceship."<ref>{{cite web |last=Diaz |first=Eric |date=December 7, 2020 |title=President Obama Admits He Was Briefed on UFO Sightings |url=https://nerdist.com/article/stephen-colbert-asks-president-barack-obama-about-ufos/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210427160723/https://nerdist.com/article/stephen-colbert-asks-president-barack-obama-about-ufos/ |archive-date=April 27, 2021 |access-date=April 18, 2021 |website=Nerdist}}</ref>

From 2019 to 2021, [[David Grusch]] was the representative of the  [[National Reconnaissance Office]] to the [[Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force]];  Beginning in 2023, Grusch publicly claimed elements of the US government and its contractors were covering up evidence of UFOs and their reverse-engineering.<ref name="Daragahi 2023">{{cite web |last=Daragahi |first=Borzou |date=August 6, 2023 |title=Is the truth really out there? Why we need to talk about UFOs and the secrecy that surrounds them |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/ufos-extraterrestrial-aliens-us-congress-b2388441.html |website=Independent |archive-url=https://archive.today/20230806182029/https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/ufos-extraterrestrial-aliens-us-congress-b2388441.html |archive-date=August 6, 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="House">{{cite web |date=July 26, 2023 |title=David C. Grusch |website=house.gov |url=https://docs.house.gov/meetings/GO/GO06/20230726/116282/HHRG-118-GO06-Bio-GruschD-20230726.pdf |access-date=August 3, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230726034327/https://docs.house.gov/meetings/GO/GO06/20230726/116282/HHRG-118-GO06-Bio-GruschD-20230726.pdf |archive-date=July 26, 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Merchant">{{Cite news |last=Merchant |first=Nomaan |date=July 26, 2023 |title=Whistleblower tells Congress the US is concealing 'multi-decade' program that captures UFOs |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/07/26/ufos-uaps-congress-whistleblower-spy-aliens/01081d9a-2bce-11ee-a948-a5b8a9b62d84_story.html |url-status=live |access-date=July 27, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230726223917/https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/07/26/ufos-uaps-congress-whistleblower-spy-aliens/01081d9a-2bce-11ee-a948-a5b8a9b62d84_story.html |archive-date=July 26, 2023}}</ref> Within the UFO community, Grusch's claims were seen as an indication that long-awaited "disclosure" was imminent.<ref name="Laycock" /><ref name="West1" />

Grusch "became a hot new topic in the UFO world" and his claims "ignited a new wave of interest in extraterrestrial life",<ref name="Sparks" /> but his story was criticized for its lack of verifiable evidence. According to science writer [[Mick West]], "Grusch presented no documents (in public) and relied mostly on what he claimed to have been told by unnamed sources, things he could not share in detail".<ref name="West1">{{cite web |last1=West |first1=Mick |title=UFO Whistleblowers Go to Washington |url=https://skepticalinquirer.org/2023/10/ufo-whistleblowers-go-to-washington/ |website=skepticalinquirer.org |date=24 October 2023 |publisher=Skeptical Inquirer |access-date=5 February 2025}}</ref> Scholars note Grusch's claims of a government cover-up of alien visitation are "broadly considered untrue by the majority of the scientific community".<ref name="Sparks">{{cite journal |last1=Johnson |first1=Nathanael |last2=Sparks |first2=Glenn |title=Narrative misinformation from a credible source can be discredited with counternarrative |date=Nov 11, 2024 |volume=23 |issue=8 |journal=JCOM |doi=10.22323/2.23080202 
|doi-access=free |quote=Our focus in this study is on the claim that there has been a government coverup of alien visitation to Earth, a claim that is broadly considered untrue by the majority of the scientific community. Misinformation has been recently described as information that opposes the best currently available expert information, and the dominant expert narrative today is that such a conspiratorial government coverup is not true.
|url=https://jcom.sissa.it/article/pubid/JCOM_2308_2024_A02/}}</ref>   
<!-- ==Allegations of evidence suppression==
Allegations of suppression of UFO related evidence have persisted for many decades. Some conspiracy theories also claim that some governments might have removed and/or destroyed/suppressed physical evidence; some examples follow.

On July 7, 1947, William Rhodes photographed an unusual object over [[Phoenix, Arizona|Phoenix]], [[Arizona]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.roswellproof.com/Rhodes_Phoenix.html|title=Rhodes_Phoenix|website=www.roswellproof.com|access-date=2009-03-20|archive-date=2009-04-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090415082821/http://www.roswellproof.com/Rhodes_Phoenix.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The photos appeared in a Phoenix newspaper and a few other papers. An Army Air Force intelligence officer and an FBI agent interviewed Rhodes on August 29 and convinced him to surrender the negatives, which he did the next day. He was informed he would not get them back, but later he tried, unsuccessfully, to retrieve them.<ref>http://bluebookarchive.org/page.aspx?PageCode=NARA-PBB1-913 {{Dead link|date=March 2022}}</ref><ref>http://bluebookarchive.org/page.aspx?PageCode=NARA-PBB1-920 {{Dead link|date=March 2022}}</ref> The photos were analyzed and subsequently appeared in some classified Air Force UFO intelligence reports. (Randle, 34–45, full account)<ref name=RanSmi>Roswell: Randle and Schmitt
* Kevin Randle & Donald Schmitt, ''[[UFO Crash at Roswell]]'', 1991; ''[[Kevin D. Randle#Bibliography|The Truth About the UFO Crash at Roswell]]'', 1994
* ''see also'' {{Cite journal | last=Kouff | first=Kal | date=August 1997 | url=http://www.csicop.org/si/show/what_really_happened_at_roswell | title=What Really Happened at Roswell | journal=Skeptical Inquirer | volume=21 | issue=4 | access-date=February 5, 2013 | archive-date=April 18, 2014 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140418144129/http://www.csicop.org/si/show/what_really_happened_at_roswell | url-status=live }}</ref>

A June 27, 1950, movie of a "flying disk" over [[Louisville, Kentucky|Louisville]], [[Kentucky]], taken by a Louisville ''Courier-Journal'' photographer, had the USAF Directors of counterintelligence ([[Air Force Office of Special Investigations|AFOSI]]) and intelligence discussing in memos how to best obtain the movie and interview the photographer without revealing Air Force interest. One memo suggested the [[FBI]] be used, then precluded the FBI getting involved. Another memo said "it would be nice if OSI could arrange to secure a copy of the film in some covert manner," but if that was not feasible, one of the Air Force scientists might have to negotiate directly with the newspaper.{{Citation needed|date= March 2020}} In a recent interview, the photographer confirmed meeting with military intelligence and still having the film in his possession until then, but refused to say what happened to the film after that.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://roswellproof.homestead.com/UFO_CalNev_1950.html|title=Strange rocket-like UFO over California/Nevada, June 24, 1950|website=roswellproof.homestead.com|access-date=March 20, 2009|archive-date=October 30, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081030063006/http://roswellproof.homestead.com/UFO_CalNev_1950.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

In another 1950 movie incident from Montana, Nicholas Mariana filmed some unusual aerial objects and eventually turned the film over to the U.S. Air Force, but insisted that the first part of the film, clearly showing the objects as spinning discs, had been removed when it was returned to him.<ref>Clark ''The UFO Book'', p. 398</ref>

On January 22, 1958, when [[NICAP]] director [[Donald Keyhoe]] appeared on CBS television, his statements on UFOs were censored by the Air Force. During the show when Keyhoe tried to depart from the censored script to "reveal something that has never been disclosed before," CBS cut the sound, later stating Keyhoe was about to violate "predetermined security standards" and about to say something he was not "authorized to release." Conspiracy theorists claim that what Keyhoe was about to reveal were four publicly unknown military studies concluding UFOs were interplanetary (including the 1948 [[Project Sign]] Estimate of the Situation and Blue Book's 1952 engineering analysis of UFO motion). (Good, 286–287; Dolan 293–295)<ref name="GhostR">Ghost Rockets:

* [[Timothy Good]], ''[[Above Top Secret (book)|Above Top Secret]]'', 1988, William Morrow & Co., {{ISBN|0-688-09202-0}}
* Timothy Good, ''[[Need to Know: UFOs, the Military, and Intelligence]]'', 2007, Pegasus Books, {{ISBN|978-1-933648-38-5}}
* [[Donald Keyhoe]], ''[[Aliens From Space]]'', 1973, Doubleday & Co., {{ISBN|0-385-06751-8}}
* [[Jenny Randles]], ''[[UFO Retrievals: The Recovery of Alien Spacecraft]]'', 1985, Blandford Press, {{ISBN|0-7137-2493-5}}
* [[Reuben Stone]], ''[[Alien Worlds (book)|Alien Worlds]]'', 1993, Longmeadow Press, {{ISBN|0-681-45414-8}} (Contains photo of search for ghost rocket seen crashing in Lake Kölmjärv)</ref><ref name=Dolan>Richard M. Dolan, ''UFOs and the National Security State: Chronology of a Cover-up 1941–1973'', 2002, {{ISBN|1-57174-317-0}}.</ref>

A March 1, 1967 memo directed to all USAF divisions, from USAF Lt. General Hewitt Wheless, Assistant Vice Chief of Staff, stated that unverified information indicated that unknown individuals, impersonating USAF officers and other military personnel, had been harassing civilian UFO witnesses, warning them not to talk, and also confiscating film, referring specifically to the Heflin incident. AFOSI was to be notified if any personnel were to become aware of any other incidents. (Document in Fawcett & Greenwood, 236.)<ref>Lawrence Fawcett and Barry J. Greenwood, ''The UFO Cover-Up'' (originally ''Clear Intent''), New York: Fireside Books (Simon & Schuster), 1992, {{ISBN|0-671-76555-8}}</ref>

According to one [[CIA Kennedy assassination conspiracy theory|theory related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy]], the CIA killed Kennedy in order to prevent him from leaking information to the Soviet Union about a covert program to reverse-engineer alien technology (i.e., Majestic 12).<ref name=Speigel>{{cite news|last=Speigel|first=Lee|title=The JFK-UFO Connection: Bogus Documents or Unanswered Questions?|url=http://www.aolnews.com/2011/04/18/the-jfk-ufo-connection-bogus-documents-or-unanswered-questions/|access-date=January 2, 2013|newspaper=AOL News|date=April 18, 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121027082646/http://www.aolnews.com/2011/04/18/the-jfk-ufo-connection-bogus-documents-or-unanswered-questions/|archive-date=October 27, 2012}}</ref>

[[Nick Cook (writer)|Nick Cook]], an aviation investigative journalist for ''[[Jane's Information Group]],'' researcher of ''Billion Dollar Secret''<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2002/09/into-the-black/303076/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160816063429/http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2002/09/into-the-black/303076/|title=Into the Black|date=September 5, 2002|archive-date=August 16, 2016|website=The Atlantic}}</ref> and author of ''The Hunt for Zero Point'',<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.salon.com/2002/08/05/zero_gravity/|title="The Hunt for Zero Point" by Nick Cook|first=Kurt|last=Kleiner|date=August 6, 2002|website=Salon|access-date=December 25, 2021|archive-date=January 15, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110115142418/http://dir.salon.com/story/books/review/2002/08/05/zero_gravity/index.html|url-status=live}}</ref> claims to have uncovered documentary evidence that top-secret US Defense Industry technology has been developed by government-backed Defense Industry programs beginning in the 1940s, and using research conducted by Nazi scientists during WWII. This research was recovered by Allied Military Intelligence, [[Operation Paperclip|taken to the U.S.]] and developed further with the collaboration of the same former German scientists at top-secret facilities established at White Sands, New Mexico, and later at [[Area 51]]. Allegedly, this resulted in production of a real-world prototype operational supersonic craft, which was actually tested and used in clandestine military exercises, with other developments incorporated later into spy aircraft tasked with overflying hostile countries. The UFO story that evidence of alien technology is being suppressed and removed or destroyed was generated and then promoted by the CIA, beginning 1947, as false-lead [[disinformation]] to cover it all up for the sake of National Security, particularly during the Cold War. This being a time when (his investigations found) the Soviet Union too was developing its own top-secret high-tech UFO craft. Cook's conclusions, alleging suppression of evidence of advanced ''human'' technology instead of alien, together with what he presents as declassified top-secret documents and blueprints, and his interviews of various experts (some of doubtful reliability), was developed and broadcast as a feature documentary on British television in 2005 as "UFOs: The Secret Evidence" and in the US in 2006 as a two-part episode on the History Channel's [[UFO Files#2006 season|UFO Files]], retitled "An Alien History of Planet Earth", with an added introduction by actor [[William Shatner]]. The ''History Channel'' program teaser promised "...a look at rumors of classified military aircraft incorporating alien technology into their designs."

In 2013, [[Mike Gravel|Sen. Mike Gravel]] claimed that the government was suppressing evidence of extraterrestrials.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://news.yahoo.com/blogs/power-players-abc-news/former-sen-mike-gravel-says-white-house-suppressing-112957111.html | title=Out there: Former Sen. Mike Gravel says White House suppressing evidence of ETs | publisher=[[Yahoo! News]]/[[ABC News (United States)|ABC News]] | date=2013-05-03 | access-date=2013-05-04 | archive-date=2013-05-03 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130503231948/http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/power-players-abc-news/former-sen-mike-gravel-says-white-house-suppressing-112957111.html | url-status=live }}</ref>
-->

===Timeline===
* '''March 1945''' - Palmer's ''Amazing Stories'' publishes Shaver's "I Remember Lemuria!"<ref name="Barkun2006"/>{{rp|116}}<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|4}}
* '''June 1946''' - Palmer's ''Amazing Stories'' publishes Crisman's letter corroborating Shaver's claims<ref name="Gulyas2015"/>{{rp|30|quote=Before spotting the flying saucer in Washington, he wrote to Amazing Stories magazine, claiming that he had fought his way out of a cave in Burma during World War II, battling mysterious and evil underground creatures.}}<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|13}}
* '''July 1947''' -  Palmer hires original saucer witness Kenneth Arnold to investigate Crisman's Maury Island incident;   USAF investigators killed in plane crash <ref name="Gulyas2015"/>{{rp|30|quote=This particular connection begins on June 21, 1947, the dawn of the flying saucer age, and two men: Fred Crisman and Harold Dahl. These two men saw a UFO over Puget Sound near Maury Island. They collected debris that they claimed had been ejected from the supposed craft. They later claimed that government officials had threatened them.}}<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|13}}
* '''October 1947''' - Palmer's ''Amazing Stories'' published letter by Shaver saying the truth behind the discs "will never be disclosed to common people".<ref name="RToronto"/>{{rp|159}}<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|12}}<!--
* '''April 3, 1949'''  - Winchell alleges cover-up of saucers being Soviet--> 
* '''December 26, 1949''' - Keyhoe's article "The Flying Saucers Are Real" published in ''True''<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|40–41}}
* '''October 1949''' - Scully's article on Aztec hoax introduces alien bodies<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|47–48}}
* '''1952''' - Arnold's ''The Coming of the Saucers'' introduces Maury Island hoax to wider audience<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|92}}
* '''April 1952''' - "Have We Visitors From Space" published in Life Magazine<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|58}}
* '''July 31, 1952''' -  Samford press conference<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|65}}
* '''1955'''  -  Keyhoe authors ''The Flying Saucer Conspiracy''  links UFOs and Bermuda Triangle <ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|111–113}}
* '''1955''' -  Morris Jessup authors ''The Case for the UFO'', an anonymously annotated copy of which introduces "The Philadelphia Experiment".<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|112}}
* '''1956''' -  Ruppelt authors ''The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects''<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|113}}
* '''1956''' -  Chop's film ''Unidentified Flying Objects: The True Story of Flying Saucers'' released
* '''1956''' - Barker authors ''They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers'' introduces Men in Black<ref name="Barkun2006"/>{{rp|82}}<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|106}}
* '''January 22, 1958''' - Keyhoe mic cut on live TV <ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|129|quote=The show, titled "UFOs: Enigma of the Skies," was telecast "live" on January 22, 1958. As Keyhoe began reading the script, his frustration boiled over and he began to ad-lib:
And now I'm going to reveal something that has never been disclosed be- fore.... For the last six months, we have been working with a Congressional committee investigating official secrecy about UFOS. If all the evidence we have given this committee is made public in open hearings it will absolutely prove that the UFOs are real machines under intelligent control.
Before Keyhoe finished the first sentence, his microphone was turned down so the home audience could not hear what he was saying. Millions of people thought the Air Force had (literally) "silenced" Keyhoe. He later claimed that "both CBS and the Armstrong Theater staff must have been warned by the Air Force: Don't permit any startling NICAP revelations, even if they have proof." Keyhoe emerged as the winner of the Armstrong Theater battle. Believers would point to it as an example of "silencing." To the public at large, CBS's cutting off of the audio gave Keyhoe's appearance an impact much greater than anything he said.}} 
* '''March 20–21, 1966''' -  [[Michigan "swamp gas" UFO reports]] occur;  Hynek's explanation is ridiculed<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|169–172}}
* '''April 3, 1968''' - ''2001: A Space Odyssey'' released <ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=unbDEAAAQBAJ|title=Conspiracy Theory in Film, Television, and Politics|first=Gordon B.|last=Arnold|date=September 30, 2008|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA|isbn=978-1-56720-722-4 |via=Google Books}}</ref>{{rp|82–84}}
* '''October 31, 1968''' - Crisman subpoenaed in Clay Shaw JFK assassination case<ref name="Gulyas2015"/>{{rp|30}}<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|263}}
* '''January 9, 1969''' - Crisman accused of being one of the three tramps<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|263}}
* '''1974''' - Emenegger releases film ''UFOs: Past, Present, and Future'' introduces summoned landing<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|207}}<ref name="MirageMen"/>{{rp|ch 12}}
* '''1974''' - Carr alleges alien bodies from Aztec are stored in "Hangar 18"<ref name="Gulyas2015"/>{{rp|40}}<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|321}}
* '''1974''' - Hynek alleges a 'Cosmic Watergate'<ref name="Gulyas2015"/>{{rp|6}}
* '''1976''' - Palmer links "flying saucers, The Shaver Mystery, The Kennedy’s assassinations, Watergate and Fred Crisman"<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|323|quote=Crisman was the perfect suspect to create a “link” between UFOs, the occult, and the various assassination theories. His testimony was never released and he is now dead. Garrison’s investigation was worthless, relying on hearsay, nonexistent “links,” and spurious “unanswered questions.” Most of the “suspects” were dead by the time Garrison sought indictments. }}
* '''November 16, 1977''' - ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' released  <ref name="Barkun2006"/>{{rp|30}}<ref name="Gulyas2015"/>{{rp|44}}<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|234}}
* '''November 1979''' - Jesse Marcel suggests Roswell was extraterrestrial in Friedman documentary<ref name="Barkun2006"/>{{rp|81}}<ref name="Gulyas2015"/>{{rp|92–93}}<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|246–251}}
* '''November 12, 1980'''- Moulton Howe's documentary ''A Strange Harvest'' links cattle mutilations to UFOs.<ref name="Barkun2006"/>{{rp|30|quote="In 1979, Linda Moulton Howe, a Denver filmmaker, began work on a documentary that alleged a mutilation-UFO connection. The film, A Strange Harvest, was broadcast in 1980. She later stated that “I am convinced that one or more alien intelligences are affecting this planet. I would like to know who they are, what they want and why the government is silent.” Howe and others, influenced by her film and subsequent publications, began to speculate that aliens mutilated cattle in order to secure body parts or biological substances they needed for their own survival, and that the U.S. government was complicit in these efforts. The idea that aliens were engaged in some obscure effort to “harvest” or otherwise retrieve biological substances from the earth has turned out to be a fertile subject for speculation, which eventually came to include such suggestions as the breeding of alien-human hybrids"}}<ref name="Gulyas2015"/>{{rp|97}}<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|218}}
* '''October 14, 1988''' -  UFO Cover Up? Live introduces Majestic 12 and Area 51 to wider audience <ref name="Gulyas2015"/>{{rp|20}}<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|268}}
* '''July 1, 1989''' - Bill Moore addresses MUFON <ref name="Gulyas2015"/>{{rp|8–9}}<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|269}}
* '''November 1989''' - Bob Lazar first televised interview<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|274}}
*  '''1991''' -  Cooper's ''Behold a Pale Horse'' published <ref name="Barkun2006"/>{{rp|36}}<ref name="Gulyas2015"/>{{rp|42}}<ref name="Peebles"/>{{rp|174–179}}
* '''September 10, 1993''' -''The X-Files'' premieres <ref name="Barkun2006"/>{{rp|33–35}}<ref name="Gulyas2015"/>{{rp|33–34}}
* '''July 3, 1996''' - ''[[Independence Day (1996 film)|Independence Day]]'' premieres<ref name="Barkun2006"/>{{rp|30}}
* '''July 2, 1997''' - ''[[Men in Black (1997 film)|Men in Black]]'' premieres
* '''December 16, 2017''' - New York Times publishes story about AATIP and the Nimitz case