The Enigmatic Memo That Captivated the Internet: Unveiling the FBI’s Most Viewed Document
In the vast digital archives of the FBI’s electronic reading room, a single-page memo from 1950 has captured the imagination of millions, becoming the most viewed document in the bureau’s history. This memo, penned by Guy Hottel, the then-chief of the FBI’s Washington, D.C., field office, and addressed to the legendary Director J. Edgar Hoover, relays a secondhand account of an extraordinary claim: the recovery of flying saucers in New Mexico.
First disclosed to the public in the late 1970s and later made accessible through the FBI’s “Vault” in 2011—a digital repository containing around 6,700 public documents—this memo has since garnered nearly 1 million views. Its popularity underscores the enduring fascination with the unexplained and the extraterrestrial.
The content of the Hottel memo (link to FBI site, memo) is as intriguing as its backstory. It recounts a tale from an unnamed source about an Air Force investigator’s alleged discovery of three flying saucers. The exact location within New Mexico remains unspecified, adding to the mystery. According to the memo, each saucer contained three small, humanoid bodies, clad in metallic fabric and wrapped in a manner reminiscent of high-altitude flight suits. The document suggests that the presence of a powerful radar installation in the area might have disrupted the saucers’ control mechanisms, leading to their downfall.
Despite the memo’s captivating details, the FBI treated it with a degree of skepticism. The bureau indexed the report but opted not to pursue further investigation. The informant’s name remains redacted, and the FBI has since clarified that the memo was not connected to the infamous 1947 Roswell incident, which involved the recovery of a supposed UFO that was later declared to be a research balloon.
Interestingly, the Hottel memo’s timing coincides with a period when the FBI, at the Air Force’s behest, was actively verifying UFO sightings. This practice, however, ceased in July 1950, just a few months after the memo’s creation, indicating a shift in the bureau’s approach to such reports.
The Hottel memo’s journey from a tucked-away file in the FBI’s archives to the most viewed document in the Vault is a testament to the public’s unquenchable curiosity about the unknown. It serves as a fascinating snapshot of a time when the lines between science fiction and reality seemed to blur, and it continues to inspire speculation, debate, and wonder among those who stumble upon it in the digital age.
This might make people believe that “the Government” is hiding alien technology, such as the three flying saucers supposedly recovered in New Mexico according to this document.
