The Maury Island UFO Incident: The Story behind the Air Force’s first military plane crash (16 page)

“When they [Davidson and Brown] left McChord they had a good
idea as to the identity of the UFO’s. Fortunately they told the
McChord intelligence officer what they had determined from their
interview.”
“The whole Maury Island Mystery was a hoax. The first possibly the
second-best and the dirtiest hoax in the UFO history."

Crisman would later in his letters to others say that he took great
issue with the Maury Island UFO Incident being called a hoax. In one
letter to Lucius Farish, Crisman would write he believed “they”
presumably the Air Force still had the original negatives of the photos
Dahl took and some of the material of the UFO. Crisman would claim
that not all the material was aboard the B-25 Bomber the night it took
off from McChord and crashed. Crisman would also claim the B-25
bomber “was recovered in it’s every piece”. (We know that comment
not to be true as there were still many pieces of the bomber at the
crash site in 2007). Crisman would also state in the letter “The plane
was perforated in a 1,000 places by what is now the same type of holes
that a laser beam makes in metal.” Crisman would also state some
erroneous comments.
Crisman stated he had read the Thurston
County Sheriff’s report although the crash occurred in Cowlitz County
and that the pilots were strapped in their seats when in fact 1st Lt.
Brown was thrown from the plane and found some distance away. letter to Lucius Farish (undated)
Thomas, Kenn.-Maury Island UFO, 1999.

If the officers had related this was just a story or a hoax to AF
intelligence why shoot down the plane? I believe whoever shot down
the plane didn’t know completely any fabricated story and had plans to
down the plane shortly after they arrived at McChord and believed they
did have some fragments or evidence of some kind on board.
A
saboteur would have had to have immediate access to the plane or
known the flight path home to align a 20mm cannon. The questions
would be who would have access and be able to shoot a 20mm cannon
at a plane between Tacoma and Kelso Washington?
How did the
informant know details of this crash before the Army released the
names?

Trail paved over part of
the
crash site
in
Kelso,
Washington.
Photo
by
Charlette LeFevre

Still a Mystery

Indeed, these new discoveries demonstrate that not all cases are
investigated fully and time may reveal more information on a mystery
that remains as complex and unsolved today as it was almost sixty years
ago.
New documents, news articles and a review of all the pieces of the
puzzle points to a fabricated story that may have tried to capitalize on a
dumping of remnants of a top secret atomic energy project the public
was not to know.
Did Harold Dahl and Crisman stumble upon a
secret project and their attempt to sell a story go awry?
If a fabricated hoax story was an explanation then another question still
remains as to why Harold Dahl would fabricate such a bizarre detailed
story of a Man in Black. And yet, after all the scrutiny on Dahl’s story
the numerous other disks sightings in the summer of ’47 from pilots
cannot be explained.
This incident serves to commend the actions of the officers that
whether or not they believed the slag was legitimate or that the stories
were contrived, these two intelligence officers took the witnesses and
sightings seriously enough to interview the pilots and witnesses and
risked their lives to secure what they believed to be evidence. This
article is dedicated to the men and women who take a risk to find the
truth.

Charlette LeFevre and Philip Lipson will continue to investigate this
case, and document this Northwest mystery.

 

Recommended Reading

Coming of the Saucers, Kenneth Arnold and Ray Palmer
Maury Island UFO: The Crisman Conspiracy, Kenn Thomas
What Happened in Room 502, Jim Pobst
The Man from Mars, Fred Nadis
Flying Saucers over Los Angeles, DeWayne Johnson
A Farewell to Justice, Joan Mellen
Remnants of Truth, Thomas Beckham

Bibliography
Air Rescue Service Final Report, McChord Field, Tacoma Washington, Aug.
4, 1947

 

Airline Head Mystified Over ‘Flying Disk’ Fragment Story.
Seattle Post
Intelligencer, I.N.S. article, Aug 3, 1947

 

Ancestry.Com (addresses and relatives for Dahl, Crisman etc.)

 

Arnold, Kenneth and Palmer, Ray.
The Coming of the Saucers,
Amherst,
Wisconsin: Ray Palmer, 1952.

 

Arnold, Kenneth.
I Did See The Flying Disks.
Fate Magazine, Vol. 1, #1.1948.

 

Arnold, Kenneth, The
Mystery of the Flying Disks.
Fate Magazine, Vol. 1, #1,
1948

 

Arnold, Kenneth.
Proceedings Of The First International UFO Congress
. 1980,
Warner Books, New York, NY.

 

Arnold, Kenneth. Project 1947
-Some Life Data on Kenneth Arnold
project1947.com/fig/arnbiog

 

Beckham, Thomas Remnants
of Truth.
Echo Communications Inc.,
Louisville, KY, 2008

 

Biographical Sketch of Fred Crisman

 

deeppoliticsforum.com/forums/showthread.php?1107-Fred-Lee-Crisman

Bragalia, Anthony
Maury Island no Longer a Mystery,
A UFO Hoax
ufocon.blo gspot.com/2010/07/maury-island-no-longer-mystery-ufohoax.html

Chuting Soldier on first flight, says it will be his last
Seattle Times, Aug 2nd, 1947 p.
(Elmer Taff)

Covington, John seanet.com/~johnco/maury.htm (no longer active)
A Curtis Commando R5C transport plane crashes into Mount Rainier, killing 32 U.S.
Marines, on December 10, 1946
.
historylink.org
Crisman Native Tacoman.
Tacoma News Tribune, Dec 16th, 1975.

Crisman, Fred (aka Jon Gold),
Murder of a City…Tacoma.
Transistor
Publishing Company, Twin Gates, WA, 1970.

 

Crisman’s Letter
Fate, January1950

 

Disc “Discoverer” Unhurt in Crash-UP
Eye-Witness Account of metallic rain.
The Hindu Madras, July 10, 1947.
FBI Report 1947.

 

Hanohano, Kalani and Kaliuska.
Notorious Fred Crisman.
UFO Magazine,
Volume 9, No 1, 1994.

 

Hasan, Khalid
Veteran UN newsman Ted Morello dies
Daily Times. July 21, 2007

 

James, Jeni, and Mike (grandchildren of Paul Lantz)
email to authors 2006 and
2013.

 

Jeffords, Edd.
Jury orders Crisman to Testify Nov 21st in Garrison’s JFK Probe.
Tacoma News Tribune

 

Johnson, Dewayne.
Flying Saucers Over Los Angeles.
Adventures Unlimited
Press., Kempton, Ill, 1998 (original manuscript 1950-51)

 

Keel, John- “
The Maury Island Caper” UFOs 1947-1987: The 40-Year Search for an
Explanation,
Fortean Tomes, London, 1987.
p.42

Keith, Jim .
Casebook on The Men in Black
. Illuminet Press, 1997
Lantz, Paul.
FBI Called Into “Disc” Plane Case! Bomber Wreckage Being Examined
for Secret Material,
Tacoma Times, August 6,1947

Lantz, Paul.
Wrecked Bomber Carried Disc Secret Army Says Data Was On Plane
,
Tacoma Times, August 4,1947

 

Letters to Editor, (from Ray Palmer concerning Fred Crisman) Gray
Barker’s Newsletter #5, March 1976,

 

Long, Greg
Kenneth Arnold UFO Pioneer
, Mufon UFO Journal, Nov.1981
Maury Fragments Not From Discs,
Tacoma Times, Aug.5, 1947, pg3

 

McNerthney, Casey UFO
frenzy was sparked here 65 years ago;
Seattle PI, June
27, 2012 (on-line)

 

Mellen, Joan.
A Farewell to Justice
. Washington, D.C.: Potomac Books,2005.

Murrow, Edward R.
Transcript of Ed Murrow-Kenneth Arnold Telephone
Conversation.
CUFOS
Associate Newsletter, Feb-March, 1984

Nadis, Fred
The Man from Mars
NY, Jeremy Tarcher, 2013 (biography of Ray
Palmer)

 

Obituary, Haldor Dahl
Tacoma News Tribune, November 4, 1953

 

Obituary Harold Dahl
Tacoma News Tribune, Feb 1, 1982

 

Obituary, Kenneth Arnold
.CUFOS Associates Newsletter, April-May, 1984

 

Palmer, Ray (
Statement about Fred Crisman)
Forum, November 1973

 

Palmer, Ray
The Real UFO Invasion.
Greenleaf Classics Pub. 1966.

 

Palmer, Ray.
The Truth About Ruppelt’s Book
Flying Saucers Issue 32.

 

Plane Crash Near Kelso Kills Man,
Tacoma Times, Aug. 1. 1947

 

Pobst, Jim.
What Happened in Room 502,
1994

 

Pratt, Bob
Interview with Kenneth Arnold
,1978
mufon.com/bob_pratt/kenarn.html

 

Ruppelt, Edward.
Report on Unidentified Flying Objects.
Garden City. NY:
Doubleday,1956

 

Shomshak, Vern
“True Magazine Less Than True-Crisman Says of Article on JFK’s
Death,
Tacoma News Tribune May 22,1975

 

Shortley,William (nephew of William Davidson)
Family Scrapbook

Springer Arrives To See Crash Scene
, Longview Daily, “Aug. 4, 1947.
(Statement of Jim Garrison on Fred Crisman)
greyfalcon.us/restored/Fred%20Crisman.ht

Stark, Brent
Air Force Day Marred As B-25 Crashes Here
. Dahlquist photo.
Longview Daily News, Aug. 1, 1947, pg. 1.

Strentz, Herbert.

Strentz, Herbert.
66
from the Journalism Department of Northwestern University.
1970

Thomas, Ken.
Maury Island UFO-The Crisman Conspiracy.
Illuminet Press,1999

 

2 Flyers Died in Crash on “Disk” Mission
, AP, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Sun.
Aug. 3, 1947, pg. 1.

Warren, Frank ufocon.blog gspot.com/2010/07/maury-island-no-longermystery-ufo-hoax.html
(Warren comments on Bragalia’s article and his conversations with Louise
Bakotich)

You name it, he’s got it: all but space that is.
Centralia Daily Chronicle November
19, 1975, (article about Dahl’s later life)
About the Authors

The “Scully and Mulder” of the Northwest, Charlette LeFevre and
Philip
Lipson
have been
researching, exploring and investigating
Northwest Mysteries for over twenty years along with the Northwest
Museum of Legend and Lore. Both Charlette and Philip can be found
in Seattle living with their two dogs.

Charlette LeFevre

 

Philip Lipson

Charlette LeFevre - has a BA in Research and Design from Wright
State University. She founded and is current Director of the Northwest
Museum of Legend and Lore and the previous Seattle Chat Club - a
lecture group founded in 1998..
The daughter of an Air Force Sargent, Charlette grew up at WrightPatterson AFB in Ohio.
She currently writes for the Seattle PI online
as the Charlette Report.

Philip Lipson grew in up Philadelphia and Detroit. He has been a
librarian and a researcher for over 40 years.
He is a graduate of Wayne State University in Detroit, MI with a
Masters Degree
in
Library Science.
He has been
involved with
UFOlogy for about 15 years and has helped direct conferences as codirector of The Northwest Museum of Legends and Lore. Philip has
lately become interested in genealogy and has provided much of the
biographical material in this book.